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His feelings were, he told us, those of bewildered resignation; but of course that was no more visible to the others than the emotions of a turtle when it withdraws into its shell. "It seems unreasonable," he murmured thoughtfully. "Oh, but they had a scrap!" the other said. "What do you mean? Was there a fight! a fight with Heyst?" asked Davidson, much perturbed, if somewhat incredulous. "Heyst?
This was what he said, but as a matter of fact he thought that the business was shaping quite satisfactorily. The man, he said to himself, had no stomach for a fight. Aloud he continued: "Come! You can't expect to have it always your own way. You are a man of the world." "And you?" Heyst interrupted him unexpectedly. "How do you define yourself?" "I, my dear sir?
It may be said that, for the first time since the final abandonment of the Samburan coal mine, he had completely forgotten the late Morrison. It is true that to a certain extent he had forgotten also where he was. Thus, unchecked by any sort of self consciousness, Heyst walked up the central passage. Several of the women, by this time, had found anchorage here and there among the occupied tables.
But soon people found other things to say of Heyst; not long afterwards he came very much to the fore in larger affairs. He blossomed out into something definite. He filled the public eye as the manager on the spot of the Tropical Belt Coal Company with offices in London and Amsterdam, and other things about it that sounded and looked grandiose.
There was at once a great transformation act: Morrison raising his diminished head, and sticking the glass in his eye to looked affectionately at Heyst, a bottle being uncorked, and so on. It was agreed that nothing should be said to anyone of this transaction. Morrison, you understand, was not proud of the episode, and he was afraid of being unmercifully chaffed. "An old bird like me!
It couldn't be any other way with a girl like me and a man like you. Here we are, we two alone, and I can't even tell where we are." "A very well-known spot of the globe," Heyst uttered gently. "There must have been at least fifty thousand circulars issued at the time a hundred and fifty thousand, more likely. My friend was looking after that, and his ideas were large and his belief very strong.
"I went away," Heyst continued. "I left him there, lying on his side with his eyes shut. When I got back here, I found you looking ill. What was it, Lena? You did give me a scare! Then I had the interview with Wang while you rested. You were sleeping quietly. I sat here to consider all these things calmly, to try to penetrate their inner meaning and their outward bearing.
If you were to make a clean spring at me, you would receive in mid air, so to speak, something that would make you perfectly harmless by the time you landed. No, don't misapprehend us, Mr. Heyst. We are er adequate bandits; and we are after the fruit of your labours as a er successful swindler. It's the way of the world gorge and disgorge!" He leaned wearily the back of his head against the wall.
It was naturally difficult for Heyst to keep his mind from dwelling on the nature and consequences of this, his latest departure from the part of an unconcerned spectator. Yet he had retained enough of his wrecked philosophy to prevent him from asking himself consciously how it would end.
"He has been tidying the place in his labour-saving way," explained Heyst, without looking at the girl, whose hand rested on his forearm. "He's the whole establishment, you see. I told you I hadn't even a dog to keep me company here." Wang had marched off towards the wharf. "He's like those waiters in that place," she said. That place was Schomberg's hotel.
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