Part 3 (1/2)
”I kno you feel,” he said with syood many years since I visited India, and of course I then saw and heard little of the darker side Your people are brave enough, out there”
”They are I don't know about Government; but its servants are loyal and devoted and unselfish and cheerful And I don't at all understand,”
she added in confusion, ”why I should have decided to inflict upon you ave ot hly shocked, Miss Farrell”
”You should have been--surprised, at least Why should I pour out my woes to you--a man I've known not fifteen minutes?”
”Why not, if you felt like it? After all, you knoe're both of ustalk to--ah--to cover our interest in one another”
She paused h at his candour ”You are outspoken, Mr
Amber! It's very pretty of you to assert an interest in me; but why should you assume that I--”
”You said so, didn't you?”
”Wel-lyes, so I did”
”You can change your mind, of course”
”I shan't, honestly, until you turn stupid And you can't do that until you stop having strange adventures Will you tell ?”
”If I can”
”About thethree people had been mistaken about your identity this afternoon”
”No, only one--the babu You're not mistaken--”
”I knew youUrdu”
”And the man at the station wasn't mistaken--unless I am He knew me perfectly, I believe, but for reasons of his own refused to recognise gott, who is--or once was--a valet in the service of an old friend, a man named Rutton”
She repeated the name: ”Rutton? It seems to me I've heard of him”
”You have?”
”I don't re her level brows ”The na, somehow But about the valet?”
”Well, I was very intih we haven't e creature, a enius, who lived a friendless, solitary life--at least, so far as I knew; I once lived with him in a little place he had in Paris, for three months, and in all that time he never received a letter or a caller He was reticent about himself, and I never asked any questions, of course, but in spite of the fact that he spoke English like an Englishman and was a public school arian blood in him--or else Italian or Spanish I know that sounds pretty broad, but he was eniged to uist, speaking a dozen European languages and ues and dialects, I believe, than any other living ether by our co I was in Paris, he hunted me up and insisted that I stay with hi book--the one whose title you know His assistance to me then was invaluable After that I lost track of hiott He was a cockney, as silent and self-contained as Rutton To get back to Nokoott at the station, called hi me--said I must have mistaken him for his twin brother I could tell by his eyes that he lied, and it made me wonder It's quite impossible that Rutton should be in this neck of the woods; he was a man who preferred to live a hermit in centres of civilisation Curious!”