Jack could feel in the statement some of the antagonism that burned in his own heart, against his own country, his own father, his own empty fate at home.
"If I'd been born in this country, I'd stick to it," he broke in.
"But since you weren't born in it, what will you do, Grant?" asked the doctor ironically.
"Stick to myself," said Jack stubbornly, rather sulkily.
"You won't stick to Old England then?" asked Rackett.
"Seems I'm a misfit in Old England," said Jack. "And I'm not going to squeeze my feet into tight boots."
Rackett laughed.
"Rather go barefoot like Lennie?" he laughed.
Jack relapsed into silence, and turned a deaf ear, looking into the alien night of the southern hemisphere. And having turned a deaf ear to Rackett and Mary, he heard, as if by divination, the low voice of Alec Rice proposing in real earnest to Grace: proposing in a low, urgent voice that sounded like a conspiracy.
He rose to go away. But Mary laid a detaining hand on his arm, as if she wished to include him in the conversation, and did not wish to be left alone with Dr. Rackett.