Page:Rowland--The Mountain of Fears.djvu/186

  a good talker, however, in his rough, staccato way, and soon I saw that she was beginning to forget about herself and think about him.

You have been ill, Doctor?' said the Count to me. 'Myself, I am also in feeble health—asthma, with a uric acid diathesis and a bad leak in the mitral valve. Hence the sea, the tropics, a sedentary life. By nature I am active, and I find it less difficult to remain quiet where there is abundant passive motion, as aboard a vessel.'

"I explained to him the nature of my own illness and my reason for coming to Sulu.

" 'I came to rest in smooth waters,' he replied. 'It is a charming island.' We talked of other things and soon discovered many mutual friends. When at last we left, at my insistence, the Countess, at the suggestion of her husband, invited us to dine the following night.

"Stewart was silent on the way in—moody, taciturn, tugging at his crisp mustache. As we entered the house he burst out: [ 170 ]