The Three Hostages

CHAPTER IV-2

He greeted me as if he had been living for this hour, and also with a touch of the deference due to a stranger.

“This is delightful, Sir Richard. It was very good of you to come. We’ve got a table to ourselves by the fire. I hope you’re hungry. I’ve had a devilish cold journey this morning and I want my luncheon.”

I was hungry enough and I never ate a better meal. He gave me Burgundy on account of the bite in the weather, and afterwards I had a glass of the Bristol Cream for which the club was famous; but he drank water himself. There were four other people in the room, all of whom he appeared to call by their Christian names, and these lantern-jawed hunting fellows seemed to cheer up at the sight of him. But they didn’t come and stand beside him and talk, which is apt to happen to your