"Hullo, here's our dear friend Andre!" he said when he saw me, in such an indifferent tone that I could detect in it the intentional affectation of a calmness to which his pale countenance gave the lie. Still he did not hold out his hand to me, nor did I proffer mine; he sat down, indicating to me an arm-chair on the other side of the fire-place. "What good fortune has brought you here so early this morning?" he continued, taking a few puffs at his cigar. "Why, I should have thought you expected to see me," I replied, looking him straight in the face. He returned my look with a smile. "I expected you, without expecting you, as they say." By the peculiar tone in which he uttered these words, I could see that he was determined to make me take the initiative in the matter upon which I had come. "Very well!" I said, wishing to show him that I guessed his mind. "I will explain myself." "I am all attention, my dear fellow," he answered. "I have come to speak to you," I continued drily, "about Mademoiselle Kondje-Gul Murrah, and about what passed yesterday between her and you." "Ah, yes! I understand: you are referring to the somewhat severe lecture which I drew upon myself, and to the confidential communication she made me." "Precisely so," I added; "you could not sum up the two points better than you have done: a lecture, and a confidence. Now as one outcome of the second point is that I am responsible for all Mademoiselle Murrah's acts, I have come to place myself at your command respecting the lecture she thought fit to give you." "What nonsense, my dear fellow!" he exclaimed, puffing a cloud of smoke into the air. "After all I only had what I deserved, for I can only blame my own presumption. Besides the very anger of such a charming young lady is a favour to the man who incurs it, so that my only regret is that I offended her. I should therefore really laugh at myself to think that I could hold you responsible for this little incident: nay, I will go so far as to say that, strictly speaking, I should owe you an apology for what you might be justified in complaining of as an act of disloyalty between friends, but for the fact that I can plead as my excuse the complete ignorance in which you left me of certain mysterious relations. You must know very well that a simple word from you, my relative, my _friend_, would have made me stop short on the brink of the precipice." I appreciated the reproachful irony concealed in this last sentence; but I had gone too far to trouble myself about remorses of conscience regarding him. "So then," I replied, "you have nothing to say, no satisfaction to demand of me in respect to this lecture?" "None whatever, my dear fellow!" he answered, in the same easy tone which he had preserved all along. "And I may add that there could be nothing more ridiculous than a quarrel between two friends like you and me upon such a matter!"