"Have you ever been in love?" I challenged by way of changing the conversation. But she evaded the question.
"You'd marry if you met the ideal woman?" she queried.
"Perhaps circumstances would prevent it again!" said I.
"What is your ideal woman like?"
Again I heard that sad splash of water from the darkness and it brought me back with a pang to our position. I smiled to think of us two, imprisoned in this death-chamber of the Southern Seas, calmly discussing the eternal question of life.
"She's tall and slim and clean in mind and body," said I; "she must trust me and be a companion as well as a lover!"
"Have you ever met her.... since the girl at Darjeeling?"
"My dear," I said, "the girl at Darjeeling is now a stout divorcée, who, as the price of her husband's freedom from her shocking temper, retains the custody of the children whom she neglects disgracefully...."
The girl laughed a low little laugh.
"How severe you are!" she commented. Then she asked: