piano broke up and went off. Barbara
stopped to put away some music and then came through the arch.

"Mr. Lister wants to go a voyage," she said to Cartwright. "I suggested
you might help him to get a post on board a ship."

"I imagine he did not suggest you should persuade me?"

"Certainly not! He refused to bother you," Barbara replied and, with
some hesitation, added: "However, perhaps in a sense we ought to help."

"That is so," Cartwright agreed. "Why did Mr. Lister come to Liverpool?"

"He wanted to go round the shipping offices. Mother told him our house
was always open--"

Cartwright nodded, "Of course! Well, I'll think about it and may see a
plan."

Barbara went off and Cartwright looked at his wife. "I don't know if
this is a fresh complication; but if she refused Harry, she'd no doubt
refuse the other. Perhaps it's important that she's willing he should go
to sea."

"One is forced to like Mr. Lister and we owe him much," Mrs. Cartwright
remarked.

"Certainly," Cartwright agreed. "However, it looks as if some
engineering talent is all he has got, and I think a long voyage is
indicated--" He stopped, and resumed with a twinkle: "For all that, the
fellow is not an adventurer, and I married a rich woman."

Mrs. Cartwright gave him a gentle smile. "I have been happy and Barbara
is not; but, in one sense, I don't imagine we need be disturbed. Barbara
has not recovered from the jar."

She got up, and Cartwright dozed until he heard a step and Lister
crossed the floor.

"Hallo!" he said. "Are you going? There is no train just now."

Lister said he meant to walk to the tramline, but Cartwright asked him
to stop for a few minutes.

"Barbara tells me you are trying for a post in an engine-room," he
remarked.

"That is so," said Lister with a touch of embarrassment. "Still, I
didn't mean Miss Hyslop to bother you."

"Barbara likes to meddle and I'm a ship-owner. To begin with, why d'you
want to go to sea?"

"I must go to sea or back to Canada," Lister said, smiling. "I've had a
pretty good holiday, but my wad's nearly gone."

"Then, wouldn't it be prudent to return to your occupation?"

"I haven't an occupation; I turned mine down. It's possible I'll find
another, but I'm not ready yet. In Canada, we're a restless, wandering
lot, and I want to look about the world before I go back. You see, when
you only know the woods and our Western towns--"

Cartwright saw and sympathized. He remembered how