"You wanted me, I think.

I beg that you'll not thank me for having descended.
It was an honor." It occurred to Rotherby that this was a veiled reproof for the ill manners of the omission.

Again he looked sharply at this man who was scanning him with such interest, but he detected in the calm, high-bred face nothing to suggest that any mockery was intended.

Belatedly he fell to doing the very thing that Mr.Caryll had begged him to leave undone: he fell to thanking him.

As for Mr.Caryll himself, not even the queer position into which he had been thrust could repress his characteristics.