“All right, all right, that doesn't matter.

You can pay tomorrow after the dinner. I simply wanted to know.... Please don't...”

He broke off and began pacing the room still more vexed. As he walked he began to stamp with his heels.

“Am I keeping you?” I asked, after two minutes of silence.

“Oh!” he said, starting, “that is--to be truthful--yes. I have to go and see someone ... not far from here,” he added in an apologetic voice, somewhat abashed.

“My goodness, why didn't you say so?” I cried, seizing my cap, with an astonishingly free-and-easy air, which was the last thing I should have expected of myself.