plans for the afternoon, then made plans for the
evening. But the hope which buoyed him was idle. The evening which
followed was a counterpart of the one that had gone before, save in
this, the general, having no papers to look over, held forth as generals
will, and Zut searched for a hedgehog in vain. That night, for the first
time, Tancred entered fully into the feelings of Tantalus and those of
Sisyphus too. He was dumbly exasperated, the more so perhaps in that he
divined that to one cleverer than he no obstacle would exist. If a woman
has an ear, and as a rule women have, there is always a way to get at
it. Unfortunately for Tancred, the way in this case was by no means
clear, and what helped to confuse him was the fact that he was impatient
to find it at once, no, but there and then, and without delay. And as in
his exasperation he dashed his head against the pillow, he told himself
that he had been abrupt, that he had unmasked his batteries too soon,
that he had frightened where he had meant to charm. Of Liance he gave no
thought whatever, except to decide that she was a nuisance. And such is
the selfishness of man, that he wished she would topple over again and
sprain a joint; in short, that anything might happen which would keep
her to her room and out of the way of Mrs. Lyeth. The idea that the
general's bride-elect might be keeping her purposely at her side was one
that never occurred to him. She is a nuisance, he decided, and dismissed
her from his thoughts.

Before he fell asleep his mind was clear as to one thing; to wit, that
in a small household it is more difficult to be alone with one
particular person than in a household where there are many. Whether he
was correct or not is a matter of the smallest possible importance. The
next morning, when Atcheh appeared with coffee and fruit, he was aware
that he had wandered through an assortment of dreams in which the
rafflesia and the general were confusedly connected; at one moment the
general had changed into that unhallowed flower, at another the
rafflesia had bristled with the moustaches of his host. And as he rose
from these fancies to his coffee he encountered a scheme which he
detained and examined. It was not particularly shrewd, yet at the moment
it seemed luminous to him. It was to the effect that if he were
inhibited from private speech with Mrs. Lyeth, there was no reason in
the world why he should not write. And as he mused, from the porch
beyond