I proved to him it was but the mere lust of savagery.

And he could not understand why we should be startled by the announcement that within forty-eight hours he would be on his way to lose himself for a couple of years in Crim Tartary.
"Suppose I sprang a thing like that on you," said I."Suppose I told you I was starting to-morrow morning for the South Pole.

What would you say ?" "I should say you were a liar.

Ho! ho! ho!" In his mirth he rubbed his hands and feet together like a colossal fly.
The joke lasted him for the rest of the evening.
So, the next morning Jaffery left us with a "See you as soon as ever I get back," and the day after that he sailed for China.

We felt sad; not only because Jaffery's vitality counted for something in the quiet backwater of our life, but also because we knew that he went away a less happy man than he had come.