“I have had some experience of it. Are you aware of its effect on the mind?”
“I feel its effect on the temper and the nerves.”
“Deeper than that, sir—it colors the judgment. Makes us look at everything on the dark side.”
Mr. Eden sighed: “I see what you are driving at; but you confound effect with cause.”
Mr. Lacy shrugged his shoulders, opened his portfolio, and examined a paper or two.
“Mr. Hawes, you served her majesty in another way before you came here?”
“Five and twenty years, sir, man and boy.”
“And I think with credit?”
“My will has been good to do my duty, whatever my abilities may be.”
“I believe you distinguished yourself at sea in a storm in the West Indies?”