“What?”
“Don’t I speak plainly enough? Have—you—ever—been—in—love?”
“With a woman?”
“Why, yes,” she railed. “With a woman, of course. I don’t mean with your musty science.”
“No.”
“Well, you needn’t be violent. Have you ever been in love with anything?”
“Perhaps.”
“Oh, perhaps!” she taunted. “There are no perhapses in that. With what?”
“With what every man in the world is in love with once in his life,” he replied thoughtfully.
She made a little still step forward and peeped down at him. He stood leaning against the face of the rock, gazing out over the hot blue Caribbean, his hat pushed back and his absurd goggles firm and high on his nose. His words and voice were in preposterous contrast to his appearance.