But I gather that your attentions did not meet with a very favourable response." He was baiting the animal now, taunting him, with the semi-humorous malice of the mischievous schoolboy.

He had no particular grudge against Rufus, but he had a lively desire to see him squirm.
But this desire was not to be gratified.

Rufus met the thrust without the faintest hint of feeling.
"What you think," he said, in his weighty fashion, "has nothing to do with me.

What you do is all that matters.

And I tell you straight"-- a blue flame suddenly leapt up like a volcanic light in the sombre eyes--"that no man that hasn't honest intentions by her is going to make love to Columbine." "Great Jove!" mocked Knight, with his careless laugh.