."

And Sir Langham sighed. He couldn't take any exercise just then, for his
last attack of gout had been very severe, and his left foot was still
swathed and slippered.

There was a dance that night on the hurricane-deck, and Sir Langham,
while watching the dancers, talked at the top of his voice with the more
important lady passengers. On such occasions he claimed close intimacy
with the Reigning House, and at all times of day one heard such
sentences as, "And _I_ said to the Princess Henrietta," with a full
account of what he did say. And the things he declared he said, and the
stories he told, certainly suggested a doubt as to whether the ladies of
our Royal Family are quite as strait-laced as the ordinary public is led
to believe. But then one had only Sir Langham's word for it. There was
no possibility of questioning the Princess.

Presently Sir Langham got tired of trying to drown the band--it was such
a noisy band--and he hobbled down the companion on to the almost
deserted deck. Right up in the stern he spied Miss Ross, quite alone,
sitting under an electric light absorbed in a book. Beside her was an
empty chair with a comfortable leg-rest. Sir Langham never made any
bones about interrupting people. It would not, to him, have seemed
possible that a woman could prefer any form of literature to the charm
of his conversation. So with a series of grunts he lowered himself into
it, arranged his foot upon the rest, and, without asking permission, lit
a cigar.

"Don't you care for dancin'?" he asked.

She closed her book. "Oh, yes," she said, "but I don't know many men on
board, and there are such a lot of young people who do know one another.
It's pretty to watch them; but the night is pretty, too, don't you
think? The stars all seem so near compared to what they do at home."

"I've seen too many Eastern nights to take much stock in 'em now," he
said in a disparaging voice. "I take it this is all new to you--first
voyage, eh?"

"Yes, I've never been a long voyage before."

"Goin' to India, I suppose. You'd have started sooner if you'd been
goin' for the winter to Australia. Now what are you goin' to India
_for_?"

"To stay with my sister."

"Married sister?"

"Yes."

"Older than you, then, of course."

"No, younger."

"Much younger?"

"Three years."

"Is she like you?"

"Not in the least. She is a beautiful person."

"Been married long?"

"Between five and six years. I'm to take her home