And though he treated them with a
contempt which was in a great measure sincere, yet he admitted to me that
deep down within him an inexplicable and uneasy suspicion that all was
not well in that cabin, so unusually cut off from the rest of the ship,
came into being and grew against his will.
CHAPTER FOUR--ANTHONY AND FLORA
Marlow emerged out of the shadow of the book-case to get himself a cigar
from a box which stood on a little table by my side. In the full light
of the room I saw in his eyes that slightly mocking expression with which
he habitually covers up his sympathetic impulses of mirth and pity before
the unreasonable complications the idealism of mankind puts into the
simple but poignant problem of conduct on this earth.
He selected and lit the cigar with affected care, then turned upon me, I
had been looking at him silently.
"I suppose," he said, the mockery of his eyes giving a pellucid quality
to his tone, "that you think it's high time I told you something
definite. I mean something about that psychological cabin mystery of
discomfort (for it's obvious that it must be psychological) which
affected so profoundly Mr.
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