"A soul, you know," he said again, and looked at the Sea Lady with the air of a man who is handling a difficult matter with skilful care.
"Come to think of it," he said, "it"s a rather complicated matter to explain----"
"To a being without one?"
"To any one," said my cousin Melville, suddenly admitting his difficulty.
He meditated upon her eyes for a moment.
"Besides," he said, "you know what a soul is perfectly well."
"No," she answered, "I don"t."
"You know as well as I do."
"Ah! that may be different."
"You came to get a soul."
"Perhaps I don"t want one. Why--if one hasn"t one----?"
"Ah, _there_!" And my cousin shrugged his shoulders. "But really you know-- It"s just the generality of it that makes it hard to define."
"Everybody has a soul?"
"Every one."
"Except me?"
"I"m not certain of that."
"Mrs. Bunting?"
"Certainly."
"And Mr. Bunting?"
"Every one."
"Has Miss Glendower?"
"Lots."
The Sea Lady mused. She went off at a tangent abruptly.
"Mr. Melville," she said, "what is a union of souls?"
Melville flicked his extinct cigarette suddenly into an elbow shape and then threw it away. The phrase may have awakened some reminiscence.
"It"s an extra," he said. "It"s a sort of flourish.... And sometimes it"s like leaving cards by footmen--a subst.i.tute for the real presence."
There came a gap. He remained downcast, trying to find a way towards whatever it was that was in his mind to say. Conceivably, he did not clearly know what that might be until he came to it. The Sea Lady abandoned an attempt to understand him in favour of a more urgent topic.
"Do you think Miss Glendower and Mr. Chatteris----?"
Melville looked up at her. He noticed she had hung on the latter name.
"Decidedly," he said. "It"s just what they _would_ do."
Then he spoke again. "Chatteris?" he said.
"Yes," said she.
"I thought so," said Melville.
The Sea Lady regarded him gravely. They scrutinised each other with an unprecedented intimacy. Melville was suddenly direct. It was a discovery that it seemed he ought to have made all along. He felt quite unaccountably bitter; he spoke with a twitch of the mouth and his voice had a note of accusation. "You want to talk about him."
She nodded--still grave.
"Well, _I_ don"t." He changed his note. "But I will if you wish it."
"I thought you would."
"Oh, _you_ know," said Melville, discovering his extinct cigarette was within reach of a vindictive heel.
She said nothing.
"Well?" said Melville.
"I saw him first," she apologised, "some years ago."
"Where?"
"In the South Seas--near Tonga."
"And that is really what you came for?"
This time her manner was convincing. She admitted, "Yes."
Melville was carefully impartial. "He"s sightly," he admitted, "and well-built and a decent chap--a decent chap. But I don"t see why you----"
He went off at a tangent. "He didn"t see you----?"
"Oh, no."
Melville"s pose and tone suggested a mind of extreme liberality. "I don"t see why you came," he said. "Nor what you mean to do. You see"--with an air of noting a trifling but valid obstacle--"there"s Miss Glendower."
"Is there?" she said.
"Well, isn"t there?"