196 MYSTIC ISLES 



clothes an' little feet. Oh! there was nothing between 

 us but the sea, an' I know that subject." 



Lying Bill sighed like a diver just up from the bot- 

 tom of the lagoon. 



"You know that big cocoanut tree in the garden of 

 the Annexe? She would sit under that with me an' 

 smoke her Cairo cigarettes an' talk about her bally kid- 

 die. She wanted him to be strong an' to love the sea, 

 and she thought by talking with me about 'im an' ships 

 an' the ocean she could sort of train him that way, 

 though he 'd been got in Paris an' might be a girl. Is 

 there anything in that bleedin' idea? She could quote 

 books all right about it." 



Ah, beautiful and brave baroness! I often thought 

 of you during those months in the Annexe. You will 

 come again, you say, to Tahiti, bathe again in its witch- 

 ing waters, and let the spell of its sweetness bind you 

 again to its soil. Maybe, but baroness, you will never 

 again be as you were, flinging all body and soul into 

 the fire of passion, and yearning for motherhood! 

 Such times can never be the same. We burn, even de- 

 sire, and consume our dreams. Child of aristocracy, 

 you found in this South Sea eyot the freedom your atav- 

 ism, or shall I say, naturalness, craved, and you drank 

 your cup to the lees and thought it good. I shall not 

 be the one to point a finger at you, nor even to think too 

 vivid the scarlet of my toilet set. That flamboyant 

 outside my window, once yours, is as garish, and yet 

 lacks no consonance with all about it. 



The scene from my veranda was a changing picture 

 of radiance and shadow. Directly below was the 

 Broom Road. Umbrageous flamboyants — the royal 



