"Why don't you marry her yourself, Bateman? You've been in love with her for ages. You're perfectly suited to one another. You'll make her very happy."
"Don't talk to me like that. I can't bear it."
"I resign in your favour, Bateman. You are the better man."
There was something in Edward's tone that made Bateman look up quickly, but Edward's eyes were grave and unsmiling. Bateman did not know what to say. He was disconcerted. He wondered whether Edward could possibly suspect that he had come to Tahiti on a special errand. And though he knew it was horrible he could not prevent the exultation in his heart.
"What will you do if Isabel writes and puts an end to her engagement with you?" he said, slowly.
Bateman was so agitated that he did not hear the answer.
"I wish you had ordinary clothes on," he said, somewhat irritably. "It's such a tremendously serious decision you're taking. That fantastic costume of yours makes it seem terribly casual."
"I assure you, I can be just as solemn in a _pareo_ and a wreath of roses, as in a high hat and a cut-away coat."
"Edward, it's not for my sake you're doing this? I don't know, but perhaps this is going to make a tremendous difference to my future. You're not sacrificing yourself for me? I couldn't stand for that, you know."
"No, Bateman, I have learnt not to be silly and sentimental here. I should like you and Isabel to be happy, but I have not the least wish to be unhappy myself."
The answer somewhat chilled Bateman. It seemed to him a little cynical. He would not have been sorry to act a noble part.
"Do you mean to say you're content to waste your life here? It's nothing less than suicide. When I think of the great hopes you had when we left college it seems terrible that you should be content to be no more than a salesman in a cheap-John store."
"Oh, I'm only doing that for the present, and I'm gaining a great deal of valuable experience. I have another plan in my head. Arnold Jackson has a small island in the Paumotas, about a thousand miles from here, a ring of land round a lagoon. He's planted coconut there. He's offered to give it me."
"Because if Isabel releases me I shall marry his daughter."
"You?" Bateman was thunderstruck. "You can't marry a half-caste. You wouldn't be so crazy as that."