Then he began to talk, laconically at first, and finally with great fluency.

It was all about himself, and everybody listened.

He proved a good talker, as a man ought to be who has knocked about four continents and seen strange men and stranger women.
You could tell that Miss Batchelor was interested, for she had turned round in her chair now and was looking him straight in the face.

It seemed that he had worked his way out to Bombay and back again.

He had been reporter to half-a-dozen provincial papers.