"Perhaps I am lazy."

"That isn't the reason," he said. "Why do you lead a hermit's life? Do
you follow your own inclination in so doing? Or are you merely proving
yourself a slave to an unwritten law?"

His voice was curt; it held mastery. But yet she could not resent it,
for behind it was a masked kindness which deprived it of offence.

She decided to treat the question lightly. "Perhaps a little of both,"
she said. "Besides, it seems scarcely worth while to try to get into
the swim now when I am leaving so soon."

He made an abrupt movement which seemed to denote suppressed impatience.
"You are too young to say that," he said.

She laughed a little. "I don't feel young. I think life moves faster in
tropical countries. I have lived years since I have been here, and I am
glad of a rest."

He was silent for a space; then again abruptly he returned to the
charge. "You're not going to waste all the best of your life over a
memory, are you? The finest man in the world isn't worth that."

She felt the colour rise in her face as she made reply. "I hope I am not
going to waste my life at all. Is it a waste not to spend it in a
feverish round of social pleasures? If so, I do not think you are in a
position to condemn me."