"I was out of my element, of course; but I think your mother liked it."
"I was very glad indeed to meet Dr. Palmoil. It seems that if we can only open the interior of Africa a little further, we can get everything that is wanted to complete the chemical combination necessary for feeding the human race. Isn't that a grand idea, Roger?"
"A little more elbow grease is the combination that I look to."
"Surely, Roger, if the Bible is to go for anything, we are to believe that labour is a curse and not a blessing. Adam was not born to labour."
"But he fell; and I doubt whether Dr. Palmoil will be able to put his descendants back into Eden."
"Roger, for a religious man, you do say the strangest things! I have quite made up my mind to this;—if ever I can see things so settled here as to enable me to move, I will visit the interior of Africa. It is the garden of the world."
This scrap of enthusiasm so carried them through their immediate difficulties that the two men were able to take their leave and to get out of the room with fair comfort. As soon as the door was closed behind them Lady Carbury attacked her daughter. "What brought him here?"
"He brought himself, mamma."
"Don't answer me in that way, Hetta. Of course he brought himself. That is insolent."
"Insolent, mamma! How can you say such hard words? I meant that he came of his own accord."