st in front of her caused her to look up, and she saw Irene
Derwent.

"What's the matter? Why are you damaging the ship's literature?" she
asked gaily.

"No, I can't stand that!" exclaimed Irene. "It's too imbecile. It
really is what our slangy friend calls 'rot,' and very dry rot. Have
you read the thing?"

Mrs. Borisoff looked at the title, and answered with a headshake.

"Imagine! An awful apparatus of mystery; blood-curdling hints about the
hero, whose prospects in life are supposed to be utterly blighted. And
all because--what do you think? Because his father and mother forgot
the marriage ceremony."

The other was amused, and at the same time surprised. It was the first
time that Miss Derwent, in their talk, had allowed herself a remark
suggestive of what is called "emancipation." She would talk with
freedom of almost any subject save that specifically forbidden to
English girls. Helen Borisoff, whose finger showed a wedding ring, had
respected this reticence, but it delighted her to see a new side of her
friend's attractive personality.

"I suppose in certain circles"--she began.

"Oh yes! Shopkeepers and clerks and so on. But the book is supposed to
deal with civilised people. It really made me angry!"

Mrs. Borisoff regarded her with amused curiosity. Their eyes met. Irene
nodded.

"Yes," she continued, as if answering a question, "I know someone in
just that position. And all at once it struck me--I had hardly thought
of it before--what an idiot I should be if I let it affect my feelings
or behaviour!"

"I think no one would have suspected you of such narrowness."

"Indeed I hope not!--Have you done your letters? Do come up and watch
Mrs. Smithson playing at quoits--a sight to rout the brood of cares!"

In the smoking-room on deck sat Dr. Derwent and Arnold Jacks,
conversing gravely, with subdued voices. The Doctor had a smile on his
meditative features; his eyes were cast down he looked a trifle
embarrassed.

"Forgive me," Arnold was saying, with some earnestness, "if this course
seems to you rather irregular."

"Not at all! Not at all! But I can only assure you of my honest
inability to answer the question. Try, my dear fellow! _Solvitur
quaerendo_!"

Jacks' behaviour did, in fact, appear to the Doctor a little odd. That
the young man should hint at his desire to ask Miss Derwent to marry
him, or perhaps ask the parental approval of such a step, was natural
enough; the event had been loo