Poor Tom's elephantine delight over anything like a simile was always emphatic, no matter whether he saw the exact point or not, and I'm afraid that brilliant folk would have thought him perilously like a fool. Happily his companions were ladies and gentlemen who were too simple to sneer, and they laughed kindly at all the big man's floundering ecstasies.
Ferrier said, "When I have got what I want, I shall vary your programme if you will permit me. Do you know, it struck me that those good souls are very like a live lizard cased in the dry clay? He fits his mould, but he doesn't see out of it. I should like to give the men a little wider horizon."
"Isn't heaven wide enough?"
"But your men are always staring up at heaven. Could you not give them a chance of looking round a bit?"
"What are you driving at?"
"Mr. Ferrier means that they do not employ all their faculties. They are going cheerfully through a long cave because they see the sun at the mouth; but they don't know anything about the earth on the top of the cave."
This was a surprisingly long speech for Marion Dearsley.
"You take me exactly. Now, Fullerton, I'm going to stay the winter out here."
"You're what?" interjected Blair.
"Yes, I'm going to see the winter through; and I mean to lay some plans before you."