He doesn't really understand if Childermass is trying to get under his skin, or if this is just the way he is about everything. It feels an awful lot like he's going out of his way to try to hurt him, though, or at least humiliate him. Is that something Childermass would do? Or is he just upset?

Can he blame him, if he's upset? Steven has done this to someone before, and they were upset too, so who is the problem here, really?

"She was going to force them to swear an oath to her," he says. "We... we could have lost even more people. Is that supposed to be better?"