The tropics were not his favourite region, and those islands of the Pacific offered no scope for profitable energy; he did not want to climb volcanoes, still less to lounge beneath bananas and breadfruit-trees, however pleasant such an escape from civilisation might seem at the first glance.

A year of marriage, of idleness amid amusements, luxuries, extravagances, for which he had no taste, was bearing its natural result in masculine restiveness.

His robust physique and temper, essentially combative, demanded liberty under conditions of rude or violent life.

He was not likely to find a satisfying range in any mode of existence that would be shared by Sibyl.

But he clutched at any chance of extensive travel.