Explore "A Lost Leader" by E. Phillips Oppenheim on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Borrowdean was curter than usual, even abrupt. The calm geniality of his manner had departed. He spoke in short, terse sentences, and he had the air of a man struggling to subdue a fit of perfectly reasonable and justifiable anger. It was a carefully cultivated pose. He even refrained from his customary cigarette.
"Look here, Mannering," he said, "there are times when a few plain words are worth an hour's conversation. Will you have them from me?"