"Unless you chanced to have very pleasant companions, you would soon grow weary of the everlasting monotony of sea and sky: sky and sea."
"I'm not quite so sure on that point. I cannot conceive that either the sky or the sea is ever really monotonous. And yet you, who have travelled so much, ought to know far better than I," she added, a minute later, as if correcting herself. "You have travelled much in the course of your life, Mr. Van Duren, have you not?"
"Not so much, perhaps, as you imagine. Still, I have seen something of the world."
"And yet you never talk to me about your travels! You have never told me a single one of your adventures."
"I am not aware that I have any adventures to tell you about," said Van Duren, with an amused expression. "How can a man meet with adventures in these days of railroads and steamboats?"
"Still, you must have encountered something, or seen something, that would be worth telling about."
"Really, my life has been a most prosaic one."
"Have you never shot a lion or a tiger?"
"Certainly not."
"Perhaps you have hunted a wild boar?"