affections. And now they had proved to be one and the
same. It was disturbing. It was like suddenly finding the vampire of a
five-reel feature film turn into the heroine.

Some men, on making the discovery of this girl's identity, might have
felt that Providence had intervened to save them from a disastrous
entanglement. This point of view never occurred to Samuel Marlowe. The
way he looked at it was that he had been all wrong about Wilhelmina
Bennett. Eustace, he felt, had been to blame throughout. If this girl
had maltreated Eustace's finer feelings, then her reason for doing so
must have been excellent and praiseworthy.

After all ... poor old Eustace ... quite a good fellow, no doubt in many
ways ... but, coming down to brass tacks, what was there about Eustace
that gave him any claim to monopolise the affections of a wonderful
girl? Where, in a word, did Eustace Hignett get off? He made a
tremendous grievance of the fact that she had broken off the engagement,
but what right had he to go about the place expecting her to be engaged
to him? Eustace Hignett, no doubt, looked upon the poor girl as utterly
heartless. Marlowe regarded her behaviour as thoroughly sensible. She
had made a mistake, and, realising this at the eleventh hour, she had
had the force of character to correct it. He was sorry for poor old
Eustace, but he really could not permit the suggestion that Wilhelmina
Bennett--her friends called her Billie--had not behaved in a perfectly
splendid way throughout. It was women like Wilhelmina Bennett--Billie to
her intimates--who made the world worth living in.

Her friends called her Billie. He did not blame them. It was a
delightful name and suited her to perfection. He practised it a few
times. "Billie ... Billie ... Billie...." It certainly ran pleasantly
off the tongue. "Billie Bennett." Very musical. "Billie Marlowe." Still
better. "We noticed among those present the charming and popular Mrs.
'Billie' Marlowe...."

A consuming desire came over him to talk about the girl to someone.
Obviously indicated as the party of the second part was Eustace Hignett.
If Eustace was still capable of speech--and after all the boat was
hardly rolling at all--he would enjoy a further chat about his ruined
life. Besides, he had another reason for seeking Eustace's society. As a
man who had been actually engaged to marry this supreme girl, Eustace
Hignett had an attraction for Sam akin to that of some great public
monum