The little greenish doctor emptied his glass, and smiled again.
"But what difference does it make," said Aaron Sisson, "whether they govern themselves or not?
They only live till they die, either way." And he smiled faintly.

He had not really listened to the doctor.

The terms "British Government," and "bad for the people--good for the people," made him malevolently angry.
The doctor was nonplussed for a moment.

Then he gathered himself together.
"It matters," he said; "it matters .-- People should always be responsible for themselves.

How can any people be responsible for another race of people, and for a race much older than they are, and not at all children." Aaron Sisson watched the other's dark face, with its utterly exposed eyes.