‘What’s that to you?’ There was no mistaking the defiant, quarrelsome intent.

‘Answer me! were you?’ Harold’s voice was strong and calm.

‘What if I was? It is none of your affair. Did I say anything in what you have politely called my drunken sleep?’

‘You did.’

‘What did I say?’

‘I shall tell you in time. But I must know the truth as I proceed. There is some one else concerned in this, and I must know as I go on. You can easily judge by what I say if I am right.’

‘Then ask away and be damned to you!’ Harold’s calm voice seemed to quell the other’s turbulence as he went on: