lly most amusing when he did not wish
to be so. He found them in the smoking cabin, Claudius stretched at full
length with a cigarette in his teeth, and Barker seated apparently on
the table, the chair, and the transom, by a clever distribution of the
various parts of his body, spinning yarns of a high Western flavour
about death's-head editors and mosquitoes with brass ribs.

The Duke was exhausted with his efforts, and refreshed himself with beer
before he challenged Barker to a game.

"To tell the truth, Duke," he answered, "I don't seem to think I feel
like winning your money to-day. I will go and talk to the ladies, and
Claudius will play with you."

"You won't make much headway there," said the Duke. "The Countess is
gone to bed, and Miss Skeat and my sister are reading English history."

"Besides," put in Claudius, "you know I never play."

"Well," said Barker, with a sigh, "then I will play with you, and
Claudius can go to sleep where he is." They cut and dealt. But Claudius
did not feel at all sleepy. When the game was well started he rose and
went out, making to himself the same reflection that Margaret had made,
"Why is my friend so anxious to amuse me to-day?" He seldom paid any
attention to such things, but his strong, clear mind was not long in
unravelling the situation, now that he was roused to thinking about it.
Barker had guessed the truth, or very near it, and the Duke and he had
agreed to keep Claudius and Margaret apart as long as they could.

He went aft, and descended to the cabin. There sat Miss Skeat and Lady
Victoria reading aloud, just as the Duke had said. He went through the
passage and met the steward, or butler, whom he despatched to see if the
Countess were in the ladies' cabin. The rosy-cheeked, gray-haired priest
of Silenus said her ladyship was there, "alone," he added with a little
emphasis. Claudius walked in, and was not disappointed. There she sat at
the side of the table in her accustomed place, dark and beautiful, and
his heart beat fast. She did not look up.

"Countess," he began timidly.

"Oh, Doctor Claudius, is that you? Sit down." He sat down on the
transom, so that he could see the evening light fall through the
port-hole above him on her side face, and as the vessel rose and fell
the rays of the setting sun played strangely on her heavy hair.

"I have not seen you all day," she said.

"No, Countess." He did not know what to say to her.

"I trust you are none th