to bear it.
The thought that nothing could stop that sound, for it would continue to
all eternity, was almost impossible to bear, and, as though his strength
were a match for the ruthless forces of nature, he had an insane impulse
to do some violent thing. He felt he must cling to his self-control or
he would go mad. And now, looking out of the window at the lagoon and
the strip of foam which marked the reef, he shuddered with hatred of the
brilliant scene. The cloudless sky was like an inverted bowl that hemmed
it in. He lit his pipe and turned over the pile of Auckland papers that
had come over from Apia a few days before. The newest of them was three
weeks old. They gave an impression of incredible dullness.

Then he went into the office. It was a large, bare room with two desks
in it and a bench along one side. A number of natives were seated on
this, and a couple of women. They gossiped while they waited for the
administrator, and when Mackintosh came in they greeted him.

"_Talofa li._"

He returned their greeting and sat down at his desk. He began to write,
working on a report which the governor of Samoa had been clamouring for
and which Walker, with his usual dilatoriness, had neglected to prepare.
Mackintosh as he made his notes reflected vindictively that Walker was
late with his report because he was so illiterate that he had an
invincible distaste for anything to do with pens and paper; and now when
it was at last ready, concise and neatly official, he would accept his
subordinate's work without a word of appreciation, with a sneer rather
or a gibe, and send it on to his own superior as though it were his own
composition. He could not have written a word of it. Mackintosh thought
with rage that if his chief pencilled in some insertion it would be
childish in expression and faulty in language. If he remonstrated or
sought to put his meaning into an intelligible phrase, Walker would fly
into a passion and cry:

"What the hell do I care about grammar? That's what I want to say and
that's how I want to say it."

At last Walker came in. The natives surrounded him as he entered, trying
to get his immediate attention, but he turned on them roughly and told
them to sit down and hold their tongues. He threatened that if they were
not quiet he would have them all turned out and see none of them that
day. He nodded to Mackintosh.

"Hulloa, Mac; up at last? I don't know how you can waste the best part
of the day