e girl turned, resting her cheek on her hand--a frail little hand,
soft-looking as that of a child--and gazed at Max wistfully.

"I suppose you'll think it's dreadful of me," she faltered, "but--I wish
you _needn't_ go. I've never been on the real sea before since I was a
baby: only getting from England to Ireland the shortest way, and on the
Channel. This is the first storm I've seen. I never thought I was a
coward. I don't like even women to be cowards. I adore bravery in men,
and that's why I--but no matter! I don't know if I'm afraid exactly, but
it's a dreadful feeling to be alone, without any one to care whether you
drown or not, at night on a horrible old ship, in the raging waves. The
sea's like some fierce, hungry animal, waiting its chance to eat us up."

"It won't get the chance," Max returned cheerfully. He was standing
now, and she was looking up at him from the hard little pillow lately
pressed by his own head. "I shouldn't wonder if the old tub has gone
through lots of worse gales than this."

"It's comforting to hear you say so, and to have a human being to talk
to, in the stormy night," sighed the girl. "I feel better. But if you
go--and--where _will_ you go?"

"There are plenty of places," Max answered her with vague optimism.

Just then the _General Morel_ gave a leap, poised on the top of some
wall of water, quivered, hesitated, and jumped from the height into a
gulf. Max held the girl firmly in the berth, or she would have been
pitched on to the floor. Involuntarily she grasped his arm, and let it
go only when the wallowing ship subsided.

"That was awful!" she whispered. "It makes one feel as if one were
dying. I can't be alone! Don't leave me!"

"Not unless you wish me to go," Max said with great gentleness.

"Oh, I don't--I can't! Except that you must be so miserably
uncomfortable."

"I'm not; and it's the finest compliment and the greatest honour I've
ever had in my life," Max stammered, "that you should ask me to--that it
should be a comfort to you, my staying."

"But you are the kind of man women know they can trust," the girl
apologized for herself. "You see, one can _tell_. Besides, from the way
you speak, I think you must be an American. I've heard they're always
good to women. I saw you on deck, and afterward at dinner. I thought
then there was something that rang _true_ about you. I said 'That man is
one of the few unselfish ones. He would sacrifice himself utterly for
others.'