Page 994 - of-human-bondage-

sengers other than a casual man or so, shipping on business
from some out-of-the-way port to another, the life on board
was friendly and pleasant. Philip knew by heart the list of
places at which they touched; and each one called up in
him visions of tropical sunshine, and magic colour, and of
a teeming, mysterious, intense life. Life! That was what he
wanted. At last he would come to close quarters with Life.
And perhaps, from Tokyo or Shanghai it would be possible
to tranship into some other line and drip down to the is-
lands of the South Pacific. A doctor was useful anywhere.
There might be an opportunity to go up country in Burmah,
and what rich jungles in Sumatra or Borneo might he not
visit? He was young still and time was no object to him. He
had no ties in England, no friends; he could go up and down
the world for years, learning the beauty and the wonder and
the variedness of life.
Now this thing had come. He put aside the possibility
that Sally was mistaken; he felt strangely certain that she
was right; after all, it was so likely; anyone could see that
Nature had built her to be the mother of children. He knew
what he ought to do. He ought not to let the incident divert
him a hair’s breadth from his path. He thought of Griffiths;
he could easily imagine with what indifference that young
man would have received such a piece of news; he would
have thought it an awful nuisance and would at once have
taken to his heels, like a wise fellow; he would have left the
girl to deal with her troubles as best she could. Philip told
himself that if this had happened it was because it was in-
evitable. He was no more to blame than Sally; she was a girl