"Existence!" she answered scornfully, "it does not seem like existence at all! Your joys are the joys of a highly trained animal; your sorrows and your passions and your disappointments—they are at best those of the yokel. What has life to do with games and sports? These things may have their place and their use, but to make them all in all! The men whom I have met are not like that!"
"I am sorry," I said. "You see the other things have not come my way!"
"You mean that you have not been out to seek them," she declared. "The pulse of the world beats only for those who care to feel it."
"Let us take it for granted, for a moment, that you are right," I said, "and that I am a convert. I am willing to abjure my sports and my quiet days for a plunge into the greater world. Who will be my guide? Which path shall I follow?"
"You are not in earnest," she murmured.
"Perhaps I am, perhaps not," I answered. "At any rate, there have been times when I have found life a tame thing. Such a feeling came to me two years ago, and I went to Africa to shoot lions."
She leaned towards me.
"You should hunt men, not lions," she whispered. "It is only the animal courage in you which keeps you cool when you face wild beasts. It is a different thing when you measure wits and strength with one of your own race!"
"Count me a willing listener and go on," I said. "If you can show me the way, I am willing to take it."
"Why not?" she said, half to herself. "You have strength, you have courage! Why shouldn't you come a little way into life?"