[General] in a tone that indicated he had no intention of being more polite

[albert210]

Hello

Is the bold part a mere reference to "gruffly" or is it a reference to the previous dialogue by Charles? It confused me a little.


“I wish you could be more polite,” Charles said, his voice drifting through the steam. “There was no reason to accuse that concierge of being a spy.”
“I was just trying to be cautious!” Sir said gruffly, a word which here means “in a tone that indicated he had no intention of being more polite.”

"The Penultimate Peril" by Daniel Handler

 

[probus]

I'd say neither. Gruff tells us something about the voice that Sir used, and the text in bold tells us more about the same thing.

By the way, is Sir the name of a character in that book? I ask because Sir without a name following it is used only when addressing someone.

 

[albert210]

Yes. "Sir" is the name of a character in that book. His real name was too difficult to pronounce and he made people call him "Sir".

 

[probus]

Thanks for fixing the typo GS. I may have surpassed 5jj as our king of typos.

 

[5jj]

You hav a lnog way to fo two even cacth up, phoebus