He travelled everywhere and died, a disappointed man, at sea." Mr.Magnus was fond of telling little stories, obscure and pointless, and Maggie supposed that it was a literary habit.

On this occasion he continued to talk quite naturally for his own satisfaction.

"Yes, one can make oneself believe in anything.

I have believed in all sorts of things.

In England, of course, people have believed in nothing except that things will always be as they always have been--a useful belief considering that things have never been as they always were.