“That’s what I can’t quite make out. Eirene’s got an idea that the Professor has in his mind’s eye—or even in his actual possession—some fortified island in the Archipelago, where we might practise sovereignty, so to speak; but that makes him a sort of benevolent magician, and I can’t quite fit it in with the other things I know of him.”
“Oh, but it’s such a delightful idea!” cried Zoe. “You would stay quietly in your island when nothing particular was going on, and when adventures were going to begin, you would be close at hand. But you must be sure and let me know whenever that is, and I shall come from the ends of the earth.”
“But what are you proposing to do?” demanded Maurice.
“My dear Maurice, allow me a little liberty. You didn’t expect me to trail about after you and Eirene, did you? I have so many plans that I don’t know which to carry out first. I am going to write my great book, and to pose as a Balkan expert in literary society, and to travel all over the world.”
“Oh, well, I daresay circumstances will make the decision for you,” said Maurice, with a significance which Zoe recognised and resented. There was a touch of defiance in her rejoinder.
“On the whole, I think I shall choose the literary part first. I shall shut myself up, and write and write; but every now and then I shall pounce out on unhappy people who think that the Emathian problem is a simple one, or who make mistakes in spelling Balkan names.”
“But who is going to accept you as a critic?” asked Maurice.
“Every one,” triumphantly. “I have the one great qualification. I have failed in literature.”
“But I thought you were going to succeed now. You’ll find yourself in a glass house—a mark for all the other critics.”
“Maurice, I have had to tell you before that you were dense, but I am sorry to have to repeat it in Eirene’s presence. When my success has come—as soon as ever I am sure of it—I shall start upon my travels. In Tibet or the Sahara I shan’t be bothered by what people are saying about me. I shall have quite enough to do with taking care of myself.”