"Oh, yes," with a laugh. "I have not brought the infection down to
Loango; you need not be afraid of that."
For a moment she looked as if she were going to explain that she was
not "afraid of that." Then she changed her mind and let it pass, as
he seemed to believe.
"Joseph constructed a disinfecting room with a wood-smoke fire, or
something of that description, and he has been disinfecting
everything, down to Oscard's pipes."
She gave a little laugh, which stopped suddenly.
"Was it very bad?" she asked.
"Oh, no. We took it in time, you see. We had eleven deaths. And
now we are all right. We are only waiting for Durnovo to join, and
then we shall make a start. Of course, somebody else could have
come down for the quinine."
"Yes."
He glanced at her beneath his lashes before going on,
"But, as Durnovo's nerves were a little shaken, it--was just as
well, don't you know, to get him out of it all."
"I suppose he got himself out of it all?" she said quietly.
"Well--to a certain extent. With our approval, you understand."
Men have an esprit de sexe as well as women. They like to hustle
the cowards through with the crowd, unobserved.
"It is a strange thing," said Jocelyn, with a woman's scorn of the
man who fears those things of which she herself has no sort of
dread, "a very strange thing, that Mr.
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