The tenth time they run on the rocks through
sheer recklessness, and lose their vessel; and then, the newspapers
always ask the same solemn question--in childish good faith--how did
so experienced and able a navigator come to make such a mistake in his
reckoning? He made NO mistake; he simply tried to cut it fine, and cut
it too fine for once, with the result that he usually loses his own life
and his passengers. That's all. We who have been at sea understand that
perfectly."
Just at that moment another passenger strolled up and joined us--a
Bengal Civil servant. He drew his chair over by Hilda's, and began
discussing Mrs. Ogilvy's eyes and the first officer's flirtations. Hilda
hated gossip, and took refuge in generalities. In three minutes the talk
had wandered off to Ibsen's influence on the English drama, and we had
forgotten the very existence of the Isle of Ushant.
"The English public will never understand Ibsen," the newcomer said,
reflectively, with the omniscient air of the Indian civilian. "He is
too purely Scandinavian. He represents that part of the Continental
mind which is farthest removed from the English temperament.
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