r coquetry had grown
under the effulgence of Madame Hayle's immediate presence like a
grain-field in sunshine. On her return from the triple burial, through
sheer exhaustion, she had fainted away. Borne upstairs by the
physician's command and allowed the roof but forbidden the lower deck
for twenty-four hours, she had let Mrs. Gilmore and "Harriet" assume her
pious task turn about, going and coming by after stairs. And so love
grew on. But so did hate, so did craft, all three, to borrow the figure,
going and coming by the after stairs of general intercourse.

LIII

TRADING FOR PHYLLIS

This afternoon was cooler than any of the three before it.

Change of latitude, assuredly; but also a sky half blue, half gray, and
a brisker air. Yet for that small minority of the ladies, who rather
craved than feared the sunlight, the boat's roofs--since custom debarred
them from the boiler deck--were still its most inviting part. After a
few modifications of dress a very pleasant refuge those roofs were,
although when the boat's course led her into the wind it was good to
shut a sash or two if you were in the pilot-house, or to draw your
chairs into the lee of something if on the open deck. Madame Hayle,
urged by all to seek repose in her stateroom, said to Hugh and the
Californian, behind one of the chimneys:

"Me, I fine it mo' betteh to breathe on that deck than to bleach in that
cabin."

Her presence was to the Californian's advantage also, in his desire to
be near Ramsey, and indeed the same was true of the two younger clerks
and the cub pilot. And this advantage was heightened by the fact that
there were such definite things to be considered wherever two or three
came together. The need to keep up the passengers' spirits was as real
as ever and a number of resources for doing it required to be discussed.
Ramsey mentioned the unidentified man with the cornet but found no
seconder. His "Life on the Ocean Wave" was thought hardly convincing and
his "Bounding Billow, Cease thy Motion" seemed to clash with the
sentiment for an ocean life and to suggest uncomfortable symptoms.
Undaunted, she tried again. Through Basile she had early discovered
three striplings of the circus ring, the "Brothers Ambrosia." Their true
name, her cross-examination had revealed, was Vinegar. In star-spangled
tights they would give some real "acrobatics," then some "aerial globe
dancing," equally star-spangled and even more up-side-down, and f