deep bass
voice in her ear, and she turned towards him with a shrug.

"No! But I was looking to see if there _were_! I want to introduce you
to Mr Keith and Mrs Mannering, the lady who shares my cabin."

He did not reply, and Katrine looking down in surprise, caught a
frowning of the forehead and pursing of the lips which betrayed obvious
disapproval. He met her glance, and smiled back with an attempt at
alacrity which was far from convincing.

"Certainly. If you wish--"

"You don't _want_ to know them? You would rather not?"

He frowned again, hesitating over the words.

"Honestly, I don't. I am not in a sociable mood. I look upon these few
days at sea as a holiday, when there is no reason why I should exert
myself against my will. I was relieved to find that there are so few
military people on board, and if a man joins a ship half-way, doesn't
play bridge, and abjures deck games, it's an easy matter to be left
alone. I promised myself never to enter the smoke-room until we reach
Bombay, or to make an unnecessary acquaintance, but naturally your
friends must be the exception. Only--there's plenty of time! Don't
drag me into a vortex of sociability."

Katrine laughed at that, but the laugh turned into a grimace.

"There is no vortex around _met_ It comes to this, that if you know me
and my friends, you will know no one else! Mr Keith is taboo. I've
explained why, and Mrs Mannering is--is--" The while she sought for
words, the blood rose in her cheek. She was embarrassingly conscious
that Bedford noticed it, and that his interest was heightened thereby.

"Is?" he queried, urging the confidence. "Is?"

"Very nice to _me_," continued Katrine desperately, "but--?"

"But?"

Again there was the same _impasse_. Their eyes met, they laughed
together, while Bedford hitched himself a trifle nearer her seat.

"It's--rather difficult to explain!"

"Obviously! which makes me all the more anxious to find out. Very nice
to _you_, but--?"

"Prom what she said; from what I've _heard_, not always very--_nice_,
herself!"

"I see!" Bedford's jaw lengthened with a gravity which was the obvious
cloak of laughter. Katrine flushed still deeper, feeling countrified
and raw, but it _was_ true that Mrs Mannering chummed with the fastest
women on board, and that the stray fragments of their conversation which
she had heard had been far from savoury. She tilted her head with a
gesture of offence.

"I am af