He moved away a few paces, and leaning out beneath the awning, looked towards the head of the fjord, where the river came bowling down the valley past Nielsen's house.
'There is the Admiral,' he said, 'coming off in Nielsen's boat. I wonder what sport he has had.'
Brenda also left her seat upon the rail and looked across the water. In doing so she came nearer to her companion, and her dress touched his wounded hand.
'Are you sure,' she said, as if reminded of his mishap, 'that you are not hurt? Shall I sponge your hand? I am not afraid of ... of it.'
He laughed in a pleasant and heartless way.
'Oh no, thanks! I will wash it in the ordinary way. It is only a scratch; I ought to have washed it before presenting myself to you.'
She looked at him speculatively, and made a little hopeless movement with her shoulders.
'You are sometimes most aggravatingly independent.'
'Yes,' he answered, in a hard, practical way. 'Independence is a necessity. If I have the gift of it, I cannot cultivate it too assiduously. Without independence I should be nowhere.'
'And yet it can be carried to undue excess. A man should sometimes pretend, I think, to be a trifle dependent upon others, and especially upon women. It is the least he can do for them, possessing, as he does, the advantage in existence. One could almost tell from your little ways and habits of thought, Theo, that your mother died long ago.'