"I suppose, in due course, you will interpret; but sometimes I do not know whether to regard you as a totally unnatural product of Super-civilization or merely a successful example of the triumph of mind over matter."
He did not know, either, how to read the look she gave him.
"In a little while, my dear," she said, "you will be able to decide."
* * * * * *
The days fled by; long days of lethargic rest. The children had grown popular with the Mission, and one lady member in particular had attached herself to them as a kind of voluntary nurse. This left the two Explorers time for longer expeditions round the islands than they could have taken with John and Thu Daw.
One day they lost themselves in a more impenetrable part of the forest, where ten yards of experimenting with paths was sufficient to shut out the sky and enclose inexperienced travellers in a leafy tomb. On escaping from it, stained and breathless, just as they were beginning to think they had better make their peace with the invisible heavens, preparatory to holding it for ever, they nearly fell over the bank of an unexpected river.
Ferlie contemplated it awhile in silence and then turned deliberately back a little way into the jungle.
"You can have that palm tree all to yourself," she told Cyprian.
But he was still attitudinizing, incomprehensive, on the bank of the river when she returned in a somewhat scantily improvised bathing dress.
"Ferlie!"