"Sit down, and talk more quietly. You say Mr. Mallard forced you to go?"
"I was coming back to Naples from Pompeii. By-the-bye, I went up Vesuvius, and descended shoeless. The guides ought to have metal boots on hire. I was coming back, but Mallard clutched me by the coat-collar. Even now I've come sorely against his will. I left him at Amalfi. I'm going to settle my affairs here to-morrow, and join him again. He's persuaded me to try and work at Amalfi."
"How long do you think of staying there?"
"It all depends. Perhaps I shan't be able to do anything, after all."
"But surely that depends on yourself."
"Not a bit! If I were a carpenter or bricklayer, one might say so—in a sense. But such work as I am going to do is a question of mood, influences, caprices—"
Miriam reflected.
"Mr. Mallard was unwilling to let you return here?"
"Naturally. He knows my uncertainty. But I have promised him; I shall keep my word."
"He is working himself?"