"I was--trying--to understand you."

"I don't understand myself sometimes--certainly not to-day!"

"I thought you were a gentleman!"

(I wonder if Eve didn't say that to Adam in the garden!)

"I have been accustomed to entertain that same idea myself," he said,
"but, after all, what is it to be a gentleman? All men can be gentle
when they get what they want. That's no test of gentility. It takes
circumstances outside the normal to prove man's civilization. When his
desires meet with opposition the brute comes to the surface--that's
all."

Another rush of passion lighted his eyes and sought its reflection in
hers. Opal turned and fled.

* * * * *

In the seclusion of her stateroom Opal faced herself resolutely. A
sensation of outrage mingled with a strange sense of guilt. Her
resentment seemed to blend with something resembling a strange, fierce
joy. She tried to fight it down, but it would not be conquered.

Why was he so handsome, so brilliant, this strange foreign fellow whom
she felt intuitively to be more than he claimed to be? What was the
secret of his power that even in the face of this open insult she could
not be as angry as she knew she should have been?