more of that lately than any one. However, if you know
so much about islands, you must also know how we happened to go into
India--or Egypt. In the beginning it was pure accident. And you know
very well that if we left them to-morrow there would be the devil to
pay. Do we get a penny out of them?"

"Oh, no!" laughed Magin. "You administer them purely on altruistic
principles, for their own good and that of the world at large--like the
oil-wells of the Karun!"

"Well, since you put it that way," laughed Matthews in turn, "perhaps we
do!"

Magin shrugged his shoulders.

"Extraordinary people! Do you really think the rest of the world so
stupid? Or it is that the fog of your island has got into your brains?
You always talk about truth as if it were a patented British invention,
yet no one is less willing to call a spade a spade. Look at Cairo, where
you pretend to keep nothing but a consul-general, but where the ruler of
the country can't turn over in bed without his permission. A
consul-general! Look at your novels! Look at what you yourself are
saying to me!"

Matthews lighted a pipe over it.

"In a way, of course, you are right," he said. "But I am not sure that
we are altogether wrong. Spades exist, but there's no inherent virtue in
talking about them. In fact it's often better not to mention them at
all. There's something very funny about words, you know. They so often
turn out to mean more than you expected."

At that Magin regarded his companion with a new interest.

"I would not have thought you knew that, at your age! But after all, if
you will allow me to say so, it is a woman's point of view. A man ought
to say things out--and stick by them. He is less likely to get into
trouble afterward. For example, it would have been not only more honest
but more advantageous for your country if you had openly annexed Egypt
in the beginning. Now where are you? You continually have to explain,
and to watch very sharply lest some other consul-general tell the
Khedive to turn over in bed. And since you and the Russians intend to
eat up Persia, why on earth don't you do it frankly, instead of trying
not to frighten the Persians, and talking vaguely about spheres of
influence, neutral zones, and what not? I'm afraid the truth is that
you're getting old and fat. What?" He glanced over his cigar at
Matthews, who was regarding the trickle of the water beside them. "Those
Russians, they are younger," he went on. "They have