mayer again.

"Makan Tuan!" ejaculated Ali suddenly, very loud in a pressing tone.

Almayer walked to the table, sat down, and his anxious visage dropped
from above into the light thrown down by the lamp-shade. He helped
himself absently, and began to eat in great mouthfuls.

. . . Undoubtedly, Lingard was the man to stick to! The man undismayed,
masterful and ready. How quickly he had planned a new future when
Willems' treachery destroyed their established position in Sambir! And
the position even now was not so bad. What an immense prestige that
Lingard had with all those people--Arabs, Malays and all. Ah, it was
good to be able to call a man like that father. Fine! Wonder how much
money really the old fellow had. People talked--they exaggerated surely,
but if he had only half of what they said . . .

He drank, throwing his head up, and fell to again.

. . . Now, if that Willems had known how to play his cards well, had he
stuck to the old fellow he would have been in his position, he would
be now married to Lingard's adopted daughter with his future
assured--splendid . . .

"The beast!" growled Almayer, between two mouthfuls.

Ali stood rigidly straight with an uninterested face, his gaze lost in
the night which pressed round the small circle of light that shone on
the table, on the glass, on the bottle, and on Almayer's head as he
leaned over his plate moving his jaws.

. . . A famous man Lingard--yet you never knew what he would do next.
It was notorious that he had shot a white man once for less than Willems
had done. For less? . . . Why, for nothing, so to speak! It was not even
his own quarrel. It was about some Malay returning from pilgrimage
with wife and children. Kidnapped, or robbed, or something. A stupid
story--an old story. And now he goes to see that Willems and--nothing.
Comes back talking big about his prisoner; but after all he said very
little. What did that Willems tell him? What passed between them?
The old fellow must have had something in his mind when he let that
scoundrel off. And Joanna! She would get round the old fellow. Sure.
Then he would forgive perhaps. Impossible. But at any rate he would
waste a lot of money on them. The old man was tenacious in his hates,
but also in his affections. He had known that beast Willems from a boy.
They would make it up in a year or so. Everything is possible: why did
he not rush off at first and kill the brute? That would have been more
like Ling