CHAPTER IX

That evening I lighted a cigar and went down to sit on the outermost pile of the Asquith dock to commune with myself.  To say that I was disappointed in Miss Thorn would be to set a mild value on my feelings.  I was angry, even aggressive, over her defence of the Celebrity.  I had gone over to Mohair that day with a hope that some good reason was at the bottom of her tolerance for him, and had come back without any hope.  She not only tolerated him, but, wonderful to be said, plainly liked him.  Had she not praised him, and defended him, and become indignant when I spoke my mind about him?  And I would have taken my oath, two weeks before, that nothing short of hypnotic influence could have changed her.  By her own confession she had come to Asquith with her eyes opened, and, what was more, seen another girl wrecked on the same reef.

Farrar followed me out presently, and I had an impulse to submit the problem as it stood to him.  But it was a long story, and I did not believe that if he were in my boots he would have consulted me.  Again, I sometimes thought Farrar yearned for confidences, though it was impossible for him to confide.  And he wore an inviting air to-night.  Then, as everybody knows, there is that about twilight and an after-dinner cigar which leads to communication.  They are excellent solvents.  My friend seated himself on the pile next to mine, and said,

“It strikes me you have been behaving rather queer lately, Crocker.”

This was clearly an invitation from Farrar, and I melted.

“I admit,” said I, “that I am a good deal perplexed over the contradictions of the human mind.”

“Oh, is that all?” he replied dryly.  “I supposed it was worse.  Narrower, I mean.  Didn’t know you ever bothered yourself with abstract philosophy.”

“See here, Farrar,” said I, “what is your opinion of Miss Thorn?”

He stopped kicking his feet against the pile and looked up.

“Miss Thorn?”

“Yes, Miss Thorn,” I repeated with emphasis.  I knew he had in mind that abominable twaddle about the canoe excursions.

“Why, to tell the truth,” said he, “I never had any opinion of Miss Thorn.”

“You mean you never formed any, I suppose,” I returned with some tartness.

“Yes, that is it.  How darned precise you are getting, Crocker!  One would think you were going to write a rhetoric.  What put Miss Thorn into your head?”

“I have been coaching beside her this afternoon.”

“Oh!” said Farrar.

“Do you remember the night she came,” I asked, “and we sat with her on the Florentine porch, and Charles Wrexell recognized her and came up?”

“Yes,” he replied with awakened interest, “and I meant to ask you about that.”

“Miss Thorn had met him in the East.  And I gathered from what she told me that he has followed her out here.”