on't think I could stand that."

CHAPTER XVII

A MAN'S METHOD--AND A WOMAN'S

Isobel's drooping was of brief endurance. Elsie and Mrs. Somerville
supported her to the stateroom, and there Elsie sat with her a little
while, soothing her as one might comfort a child in pain. Once it
seemed that the stricken girl was on the point of confiding in her
friend, but the imminent words died away in a passion of tears. Elsie
besought her to rest, and strove to calm her with predictions of the
joyous days they would pass together when the stress and terror of
their present life should be a tale that is told.

Isobel, stupefied by some haunting knowledge which appeared to have a
vague connection with the misfortunes of the _Kansas_, yielded to
Elsie's gentle compulsion, and endeavored to close her eyes. All was
quiet in the cabin, save for the sufferer's labored breathing, and an
occasional sob, while her wondering nurse smoothed her luxuriant hair,
and whispered those meaningless little phrases which have such magic
influence on the distracted nerves of woman-kind. There was hardly a
sound on the ship, beyond an unexplained creaking of pulleys, which
soon ceased.

Mrs. Somerville had gone, in response to Elsie's mute appeal. Somehow,
from a piecing together of hints and half phrases, the girl feared a
painful disclosure as the outcome of Isobel's hysteria. She was glad
it had been averted. If there were hidden scandals in her friend's
life in Chile, she prayed they might remain at rest. She had not
forgotten Christobal's guarded words. He probably knew far more than
he chose to tell of the "summer hotel attachment" between Isobel and
Ventana at which he had hinted. But, even crediting that passing folly
with a serious aspect, why should the daughter of the richest merchant
in Valparaiso fall prostrate at the mere mention of the name of a
disreputable loafer like Jose the Winebag? To state the fact was to
refute it. Elsie dismissed the idea as preposterous. It was clear
enough that Isobel's break-down arose from some other cause; perhaps
the relaxed tension of existence on board the _Kansas_, after the
hardships borne on the island, supplied a simple explanation.

Through the open port she heard a man walk rapidly along the deck, and
halt outside the door. She half rose from her knees to answer the
expected knock, thinking that Mrs. Somerville had sent a steward to
ascertain if Miss Baring needed anythin