Certainly. It's true he speaks Arabic, but he doesn't understand the native mind. Grammars can't teach you that, my dear, only sympathy. He has the mind of an official. I often think that you must have swallowed a ramrod in early life and poor Henry was born with a foot-rule in his inside.

Christina.

I am not amused, Arthur.

Arthur.

I have no doubt in course of time he'll become a very competent official, but he'll never be anything else. He lacks imagination, and that is just as necessary to a statesman as to a novelist. Finally he has no charm.

Christina.

How can you judge? You're his uncle. You might just as well say I have no charm.

Arthur.

You haven't. You're an admirable woman, with all the substantial virtues which make you an ornament to your sex, but you have no charm.

Christina.