But
he was beforehand with me, and with the morning came a letter
begging my forgiveness and asking me to go that evening to dine
with him.
We were alone, and during dinner and afterwards, when we sat
smoking and sipping black coffee in the veranda, we were
unusually quiet, even to gravity, which caused the two white-clad
servants that waited on us--the brown-faced subtle-eyed old Hindu
butler and an almost blue-black young Guiana Negro--to direct
many furtive glances at their master's face. They were
accustomed to see him in a more genial mood when he had a friend
to dine. To me the change in his manner was not surprising: from
the moment of seeing him I had divined that he had determined to
open the shut and clasped volume of which I had spoken--that the
time had now come for him to speak.
CHAPTER I
Now that we are cool, he said, and regret that we hurt each
other, I am not sorry that it happened. I deserved your
reproach: a hundred times I have wished to tell you the whole
story of my travels and adventures among the savages, and one of
the reasons which prevented me was the fear that it would have an
unfortunate effect on our friendship.
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