They wouldn't be
obliged to talk to each other."
"If you've finished your dinner, J. J., we may as well go into the next
room and smoke. I don't see that there's any use going on with this
conversation."
"There isn't; not the least. But you'll do me the justice, Major, to
admit that it wasn't I who insisted on it. I could perfectly well have
arranged the matter in two sentences, but you would argue with me about
every single thing I said."
Major Kent rose and opened the door for his friend. They went together
into the study and sat down. The Major, after a few preliminary
excuses, took the two copies of _The Times_, which had arrived by post
whilst he was out in the _Spindrift_. He settled down to the leading
articles with a comfortable sense that he was doing his duty. Meldon
wandered round the room looking for something to read. He found a new
book on boat-building which promised to be interesting. Unfortunately
it turned out to be highly technical, and therefore dull. It dropped
from his knees. He nodded, took the pipe from his mouth, lay back
comfortably, and went to sleep. Major Kent satisfied himself that the
English navy, though in some ways the best in the world, was in other
respects inefficient and utterly useless as a national defence.
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