Questioning, hinting, she played at motherly age and wisdom.
As for him, he never before knew how well he could talk, or how
engrossing his sober life, both in his native village on the Baltic and
afterward in Bremen, could prove to either himself or a stranger.
Yet he was not such a fool, he reflected, as to tell everything. So far
from trading confidences, she had told him only that she was bound
straight on to Hongkong; that curiosity alone had led her to travel
second-class, "for the delightful change, you know, from all such
formality"; and that she was "really more French than English." Her
reticence had the charm of an incognito; and taking this leaf from her
book, he gave himself out as a large, vaguely important person
journeying on a large, vague errand.
"But you are a griffin?" she had said, as they sat together at tea.
"Pardon?" he ventured, wary and alarmed, wondering whether he could
claim this unknown term as in character with his part.
"I mean," Miss Forrester explained, smiling, "it is your first visit to
the Far East?"
"Oh, yes," he replied eagerly, blushing. He would have given worlds to
say, "No.
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