He had been lying awake for half an hour when the French couple entered their cabin.
They were quiet for a minute or two, and he could only hear the sounds they made as they moved about the cabin, and an occasional grunted comment. Then the woman began.
“Well, that is the first evening over! Three more! It is too much to think of.”
“It will pass.” A yawn. “What is the matter with the Italian woman and her son?”
“You did not hear? Her husband was killed in the earthquake at Erzurum. The first officer told me. He is very nice, but I had hoped that there would be at least one French person to talk to.”
“There are people who speak French. The little Turk speaks it very well. And there are the others.”
“They are not French. That girl and that man-the Spaniard. They say that they are dancers, but I ask you.”
“She is pretty.”
“Certainly. I do not dispute it. But you need not think little thoughts. She is interested in the Englishman. I do not like him. He does not look like an Englishman.”
“You think the English are all milords with sporting clothes and monocles. Ha! I saw the Tommies in nineteen fifteen. They are all small and ugly with very loud voices. They talk very quickly. This type is more like the officers who are thin and slow, and look as if things do not smell very nice.”