was clear-visioned
enough to put the wrong where it belonged.

"It is your lead," said the admiral patiently.

"Pardon me!" contritely. The gentle reproach brought her back to the
surroundings.

"It is the motion of the boat," hazarded Cathewe, as he saw her lead
the ace. "I often find myself losing count in waiting for the next
roll."

"Mr. Cathewe is very kind," she replied. "The truth is, however, I am
simply stupid to-night."

Breitmann continued to speak lowly to Laura. He was evidently amusing,
for she smiled frequently. Nevertheless, she smiled as often upon
Fitzgerald. Never a glance toward the woman who held his fortunes, as
they both believed, in the hollow of her hand. Breitmann appeared to
have forgotten her existence.

When the rubber was finished Cathewe came into the breach by suggesting
that they two, he and his partner, should take the air for a while; and
Hildegarde thanked him with her eyes. They tramped the port side,
saying nothing but thinking much. His arm was under hers to steady
her, and he could feel the catch each time she breathed, as when one
stifles sobs that are tearless. Ah, to hold her close and to shield
her; but a thousand arms may not intervene between the heart and the
pain that stabs it. He knew; he knew all about it, and there was
murder in his thought whenever his thought was of Breitmann. To be
alone with him somewhere, and to fight it out with their bare hands.

She had been schooled in the art of acting, but not in the art of
dissimulation; she had been of the world without having been worldly;
and sometimes she was as frank and simple as a child. And worldliness
makes a buffer in times like these. Cathewe thanked God for his own
shell, toughened as it had been in the war of life.

"Look!" he exclaimed, thankful for the diversion. "There goes a big
liner for Sandy Hook. How cheerful she looks with all her lights!
Everybody's busy there. There will be greetings to-morrow, among the
sundry curses of those who have not declared their Parisian models."

They paused by the rail and followed the great ship till all the lights
had narrowed and melted into one; and then, almost at once, the
limitless circle of pitching black water seemed tenanted by themselves
alone.

Without warning she bent swiftly and kissed the hand which lay upon the
rail. "How kind you are to me!"

"Oh, pshaw!" But the touch of her lips shook his soul.

Cathewe was one of those