"in a sort of
conniption fit. A relative of mine; in fact a niece, my only sister's
child. Hadn't seen each other for ten years, and it was too much for
her."

The woman glanced at him with a mingling of incredulous belief, but
delighted obedience, hurriedly gathered a few articles from her cabin,
and followed him to No. 257. The young girl was still unconscious. The
stewardess applied a few restoratives with the skill of long experience,
and the young girl opened her eyes. They turned vacantly from the
stewardess to Jack with a look of half recognition and half frightened
inquiry. "Yes," said Jack, addressing the eyes, although ostentatiously
speaking to Mrs. Johnson, "she'd only just come by steamer to 'Frisco
and wasn't expecting to see me, and we dropped right into each other
here on the boat. And I haven't seen her since she was so high. Sister
Mary ought to have warned me by letter; but she was always a slouch at
letter writing. There, that'll do, Mrs. Johnson. She's coming round; I
reckon I can manage the rest. But you go now and tell the purser I want
one of those inside staterooms for my niece,--MY NIECE, you hear,--so
that you can be near her and look after her."

As the stewardess turned obediently away the young girl attempted to
rise, but Jack checked her. "No," he said, almost brusquely; "you and
I have some talking to do before she gets back, and we've no time for
foolin'. You heard what I told her just now! Well, it's got to be as I
said, you sabe. As long as you're on this boat you're my niece, and my
sister Mary's child. As I haven't got any sister Mary, you don't run any
risk of falling foul of her, and you ain't taking any one's place. That
settles that. Now, do you or do you not want to see that man again? Say
yes, and if he's anywhere above ground I'll yank him over to you as soon
as we touch shore." He had no idea of interfering with his colleague's
amours, but he had determined to make Stratton pay for the bother their
slovenly sequence had caused him. Yet he was relieved and astonished
by her frantic gesture of indignation and abhorrence. "No?" he repeated
grimly. "Well, that settles that. Now, look here; quick, before she
comes--do you want to go back home to your friends?"

But here occurred what he had dreaded most and probably thought he had
escaped. She had stared at him, at the stewardess, at the walls, with
abstracted, vacant, and bewildered, but always undimmed and unmoistened
eyes. A