"
"Imperfectly disciplined," corrected Mr. Travers after a moment of
dreary meditation.
She let her arms fall and turned her head.
"No, don't say that," she protested with strange earnestness. "I am the
most severely disciplined person in the world. I am tempted to say that
my discipline has stopped at nothing short of killing myself. I suppose
you can hardly understand what I mean."
Mr. Travers made a slight grimace at the floor.
"I shall not try," he said. "It sounds like something that a barbarian,
hating the delicate complexities and the restraints of a nobler life,
might have said. From you it strikes me as wilful bad taste. . . .
I have often wondered at your tastes. You have always liked
extreme opinions, exotic costumes, lawless characters, romantic
personalities--like d'Alcacer . . ."
"Poor Mr. d'Alcacer," murmured Mrs. Travers.
"A man without any ideas of duty or usefulness," said Mr. Travers,
acidly. "What are you pitying him for?"
"Why! For finding himself in this position out of mere good-nature.
He had nothing to expect from joining our voyage, no advantage for his
political ambitions or anything of the kind. I suppose you asked him on
board to break our tete-a-tete which must have grown wearisome to you."
"I am never bored," declared Mr.
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