essing in disguise, for by exercising a
little imagination you can make the story end as you like, and spare
yourself the pain of disappointment. I rarely read a book without
reflecting how much better I could have finished it myself," remarked
the young lady, with an assurance which evoked a smile on the officer's
impassive countenance.

"You don't look much like an authoress," he said, surveying the dainty
little figure approvingly, and calling up a mental picture of the
spectacled and cadaverous female invariably associated with a literary
career in the masculine mind. "I am afraid my imagination will hardly
stand such a strain; but books are the only refuge for the destitute on
a voyage, especially during the first few days, when you find yourself
shut up with a herd of strangers whom you have never met before in the
course of your life. There is only one thing to do under the
circumstances, and that is to lie low, and speak to no one until you
have found your bearings and discovered who is who. If you go about
talking to strangers, you can never tell in what sort of a set you may
land yourself."

"You can't, indeed! It's appalling to think of!" agreed the young lady,
with a dramatic gesture of dismay which brought her little ringed hands
together in decided emphasis. "For my own part I get on well enough,"
she proceeded, contradicting herself with unruffled composure, "for I
can find something interesting in all of my fellow-creatures; but I feel
it for my maid! The couriers and valets are so _very_ exclusive that
she has been snubbed more than once because of our inferior station.
Naturally she feels it keenly. I observe that those people are most
sensitive about their position who have the least claim to distinction;
but as she does my hair better than any one else, and is an admirable
dressmaker, I am, of course, anxious to keep her happy."

The big man looked down with a suspicious glance. Through his not very
keen sensibilities there had penetrated the suspicion that the small
person in the white frock was daring to smile at him and amuse herself
at his expense; but his suspicion died at once before the glance of
infantile sweetness which met his own. Pretty little thing! there was
something marvellously taking in her appearance. For one moment, as she
had spoken of inferior station, he had had an uneasy fear lest he had
made the acquaintance of some vulgar upstart, with whom he could not
possibl