Sir David Suchet

This put the monstrous thought to flight.

You looked at me, I said, forcing a smile, as if you had a dread of me.

I was doubtful, he returned, whether I had seen you before.

Where?

He pointed to the red light he had looked at.

There, I said.

Intently watchful of me, he replied, but without sound.

However be that as it may, I never was there.

You may swear.

I think I may, he rejoined.

Yes, I'm sure I may.

His manner cleared like my own.

He replied to my remarks with readiness and in well-chosen words.

Had he much to do there?

Yes, for that was to say, he had enough responsibility to bear.

But exactness and watchfulness were what was required of him, and of actual work, manual labour, he had next to none.

To change the signal, to trim those lights, and to turn this iron handle now and then was all he had to do under that head.

Regarding those many long and lonely hours of which I seemed to make so much, he could only say that the routine of his life had shaped itself into that form, and he had grown used to it.

He had taught himself a language down here.

if only to know it by sight and to have formed his own crude ideas of its pronunciation, could be called learning it.