she repeated.

‘You’ve said that before,’ he cried in a high voice.

She turned completely away from him, to Gerald Crich, whose eyes were shining with a subtle amusement.

‘Were you ever vewy much afwaid of the savages?’ she asked in her calm, dull childish voice.

‘No — never very much afraid. On the whole they’re harmless — they’re not born yet, you can’t feel really afraid of them. You know you can manage them.’

‘Do you weally? Aren’t they very fierce?’

‘Not very. There aren’t many fierce things, as a matter of fact. There aren’t many things, neither people nor animals, that have it in them to be really dangerous.’