"It is Japanese in its simplicity," said Edmund de Ath gravely, "and yet if you only look deeper, Barock complexity and ornament are to be found—observe the tufts of cloud scudding in below the Orb, the delicate curtseying of the waves as they meet—" and then he was off in high-flown French that Jack could not really follow; which prompted Monsieur Arlanc to say "I gather from your accent that you are Belgian." Edmund de Ath (1) took this as an insult of moderate severity but (2) was too serene and poised to be troubled by it unduly. With Christian forbearance he responded with something like, "And I gather from the company you keep, monsieur, that you are one of those whose conscience led him to forsake the complexity and contradictions of the Roman church for the simplicity of a rebel creed." That this Belgian friar refrained from using the word heretic was noted silently by every man in the cabin. Again he and Arlanc went off into deep French. But van Hoek was clearing his throat a lot and so Jack finally broke in: "The maggots, weevils, mealworms, and mold in those serving-dishes aren’t going to keep fresh all night!"