in the steerage, who had a little trick dog
which was lots of fun. I went, and saw the bronze young man again. He
was standing with his arms folded across his blue-flannel-shirted
chest, leaning against one of the supports of a kind of bridge, looking
up towards the first-class deck. Our eyes met as they had before, and I
was so absurd that I felt myself blushing. I could have boxed my own
ears; and though the trained dog really was a pet, I didn't stay long.

It is strange how certain kinds of eyes haunt one. You, see them in the
air, as if they were really looking at you--especially when you are
just dropping off to sleep. I think grey ones do this more than others.
Perhaps it is because they are more piercing.

But it was on the fourth day that the climax came,--the climax which
has ended by upsetting me so much, and has made everything so
uncomfortable.

The weather was glorious--all blue and gold after a sulky, leaden
day--and there was dancing down on the steerage deck again. Though it
was so fine, the water was not smooth like a floor as it had been at
first, but broken into indigo waves ruffled irregularly with silver
lace and edged with shimmering pearl fringe.

The same performance was going on, down there on the crowded deck, that
I'd seen the first day, and Sally Woodburn and I, who had been
walking--counting the times we went round, to make two miles--stopped
to glance at the show.

"There's that good-looking man Cousin Katherine classifies as a hulking
animal," said Sally. "I must really consult the dictionary for a
definition of the word 'hulking.' I don't know whether it's a verb or
adjective, do you?"

"No, I don't," said I. "But whichever it is, I'm sure he doesn't or
isn't. He's a gentleman, and something strange has happened or he
wouldn't be there. I do think it's a shame. It must be horrible."

"Don't you think Cousin Katherine knows more about such persons than
you?" asked Sally, and there was such a funny quaver in her voice that
I turned to see what it meant. She was laughing, but whether at me or
at Mrs. Ess Kay, or at the man with the Lobster-Claw nose, I couldn't
tell; and before I could answer her question by asking another,
something happened which put the whole conversation out of my mind.

The ship curtseyed to a wave of more importance than any that had gone
before, then righted herself quickly. We slid a little, everybody who
could catching hold of the rail or of some friend's