"Yes, I am." Lawrence was thoughtful. "It is a paradox, I am so selfish that, although I would sacrifice myself to the last degree for a person I loved, yet I would all the time feel that I was a fool, that I was doing an absurd thing when life was so good."
"I see," Claire observed. "And I know I would do the same."
"I would do it," Philip said, "but I would not feel a fool. It would seem to me right."
Claire looked straight into his eyes. "You would not, Philip," she declared softly. "Your own happiness would come first—and you know it."
The Spaniard's gaze shifted, and there was silence in the cabin. When he looked up his eyes had changed their expression.
"Yes," he agreed steadily, "I admit it. Hereafter I mean to have what I want from life at any cost."
"Yet you will go on talking ideals," Lawrence mocked.
"Yes—and thinking them, too."
"While Lawrence will make the sacrifice and go on talking his selfishness," Claire added.
Both men laughed constrainedly.