He may recollect them after an effort when he thinks of them
seriously; but he can't possibly bear them all in mind at once
every hour of the day and night by a pure tour de force of mental
concentration. You know it's the same with your people in other
barbarous countries. Your own travellers say it themselves about
the customs of Islam. They can't learn them and remember them all
at every moment of their lives, as the Mohammedans do; and to make
one slip there is instant death to them."

Frida looked at him earnestly. "But I hope," she said with an
air of deprecation, pulling a rose to pieces, petal by petal,
nervously, as she spoke, "you don't put us on quite the same level
as Mohammedans. We're so much more civilised. So much better in
every way. Do you know, Mr. Ingledew," and she hesitated for a
minute, "I can't bear to differ from you or blame you in anything,
because you always appear to me so wise and good and kind-hearted
and reasonable; but it often surprises me, and even hurts me, when
you seem to talk of us all as if we were just so many savages.
You're always speaking about taboo, and castes, and poojah, and
fetiches, as if we weren't civilised people at all, but utter
barbarians. Now, don't you think--don't you admit, yourself, it's
a wee bit unreasonable, or at any rate impolite, of you?"

Bertram drew back with a really pained expression on his handsome
features. "O Mrs. Monteith!" he cried, "Frida, I'm so sorry if
I've seemed rude to you! It's all the same thing--pure human
inadvertence; inability to throw myself into so unfamiliar an
attitude. I forget every minute that YOU do not recognise the
essential identity of your own taboos and poojahs and fetiches with
the similar and often indistinguishable taboos and poojahs and