You will never experience the subtle emotions which make one day better worth living than a lifetime."
"Have you gone through all this?"
"In part. Life has always been for me a drama. I started with the intention of getting all I could out of it. I think I have succeeded pretty well, though it has been as much bad as good. I don't care in the least about life as life. But as I told you one day, there is something in me fierce and untamable, and I confess also morbid, which craves for some other outlet than that of the decorous Philistine routine."
"And so you contrive to get that outlet?"
"Yes."
"I can't imagine how! Surely not in the life I see you lead."
"There are excitements even in the life which you' see me lead," he answered evasively.
"Such as this evening, for instance. But that can mean nothing. It must be easy for you to excel among such men as are. in the Assembly here."
"You should not disparage them. The Governor was telling me that he has been deeply impressed by the ability and statesmanlike foresight of Sir James Garfit. Look, Miss Valliant! Did you ever see the river so beautiful? What would you not give to have a row tonight?"
He pointed to the shining flood, flecked by the moon's rays, and with the mysterious shadows of the bamboos on the opposite shore mirrored on its surface.
"If it had been the days when Ina and I were alone here, we should probably unmoor the boat and go."
"May I not be Lady Horace for to-night?"
"Ah, Ina would not do it now. She has grown so staid since her marriage. Horace would tell her that it was not the sort of thing an English lady would do."
"Come." He held open the wicket which led into the garden. The banana trees looked weird in the moonlight. The cottage was all dark. There was a light only in Mrs.
