'There's a lady's scheme for you! If you'll write for furnished apartments, là-bas, I don't desire anything better. But no leaps in the dark for me. America and Algeria are very fine words to cram into an empty stomach when you're lounging in the sun, out of work, just as you stuff tobacco into your pipe and let the smoke curl around your head. But they fade away before a cutlet and a bottle of wine. When the earth grows so smooth and the air so pure that you can see the American coast from the pier yonder, then I'll make up my bundle. Not before.'
'You're afraid, then, to risk anything?'
'I'm afraid of nothing, moi. But I am not a fool either. I don't want to kick away my sabots till I am certain of a pair of shoes. I can go barefoot here. I don't want to find water where I counted on land. As for America, I've been there already.'
'Ah! you've been there?'
'I've been to Brazil and Mexico and California and the West Indies.'
'Ah!'
'I've been to Asia, too.'
'Ah!'
'Pardio, to China and India. Oh, I've seen the world! I've been three times around the Cape.'
'You've been a seaman then?'