A Descent into Egypt by Algernon Blackwood

The hand that lit my cigarette, I saw, was trembling. A desire to do something violent woke in me suddenly to move energetically, to push or drive something away.

'What was it?' I asked abruptly, in a louder, half-challenging voice, intended for the man at the piano. 'Such a performance upon others without first asking their permission seems to me unpermissible it's'