ok
which had achieved notoriety for what is called frankness. He had a
bookshelf in his cabin containing his shore-going boots and a derby hat,
a Whittaker's Almanac, a Who's Who, several year-books, and a shilling
encyclopedia. It was astonishing, the comfort he seemed to derive from
knowing the census-returns of Bolivia, or the Republican majority in
Oregon, or the number of microbes in a pint of milk. But it did no one
any harm. I only mention it because he, too, in his way, fell in love
with Artemisia and for a time neglected his familiar preoccupations.

"For that is what it amounted to--that we all fell in love. Each of us
had to measure ourselves by this standard. At certain times in our lives
we all have to drop what we are doing and submit ourselves to the test.
I'm afraid most of us don't cut a very brilliant figure. It is fortunate
for us that one can achieve success in a lower class, and can pass
muster as human beings because we are honest or sober or clever, and
not simply because we are worthy of love. All the same, I fancy the
contempt which some of us pour upon the lucky ones is born of envy. We
wish to be like them in our heart of hearts. I used to have the most
preposterous dreams of being the lover of some proud, beautiful girl I
had read about or seen in the street.

"Artemisia was like that. She was one of those beings who inspire love,
who are the living embodiments of that tender philosophy which makes
every adjustment of our lives by sentiment alone, and who convince us,
by a gesture, a glance, a timbre in their voices, that our lightest
fancy is a grave resolution of the soul.

"It would be easy, of course, to jeer at a crowd of simple,
half-educated shell-backs losing their hearts to a lady-passenger's
maid, but that would not be a fair account of it. We were not simple in
that sense. My experience is that contact with the great elemental
realities does not breed simplicity so much as a sort of cunning. We
live deprived of so many of the amenities of culture and wealth that we
cannot credit our good fortune when anything really fine comes in our
way. We are not to be had. We are cautious. These good things are for
shore people. And we get into the habit of good-humoured humility,
discounting ourselves and our shipmates beyond recall. We say, 'only
fools and drunkards go to sea,' and that indicates pretty accurately the
value we place upon our hopes and aspirations.

"And so you must not ex