oesn't make you rich.'

'Oh, of course you have got to practise it--and to practise it long.'

'Yes--so Mr. Porterfield says.'

Something in the way she uttered these words made me laugh--they were so
serene an implication that the gentleman in question did not live up to
his principles. But I checked myself, asking my companion if she
expected to remain in Europe long--to live there.

'Well, it will be a good while if it takes me as long to come back as it
has taken me to go out.'

'And I think your mother said last night that it was your first visit.'

Miss Mavis looked at me a moment. 'Didn't mother talk!'

'It was all very interesting.'

She continued to look at me. 'You don't think that.'

'What have I to gain by saying it if I don't?'

'Oh, men have always something to gain.'

'You make me feel a terrible failure, then! I hope at any rate that it
gives you pleasure--the idea of seeing foreign lands.'

'Mercy--I should think so.'

'It's a pity our ship is not one of the fast ones, if you are
impatient.'

She was silent a moment; then she exclaimed, 'Oh, I guess it will be
fast enough!'

That evening I went in to see Mrs. Nettlepoint and sat on her sea-trunk,
which was pulled out from under the berth to accommodate me. It was nine
o'clock but not quite dark, as our northward course had already taken us
into the latitude of the longer days. She had made her nest admirably
and lay upon her sofa in a becoming dressing-gown and cap, resting from
her labours. It was her regular practice to spend the voyage in her
cabin, which smelt good (such was the refinement of her art), and she
had a secret peculiar to herself for keeping her port open without
shipping seas. She hated what she called the mess of the ship and the
idea, if she should go above, of meeting stewards with plates of
supererogatory food. She professed to be content with her situation (we
promised to lend each other books and I assured her familiarly that I
should be in and out of her room a dozen times a day), and pitied me for
having to mingle in society. She judged this to be a limited privilege,
for on the deck before we left the wharf she had taken a view of our
fellow-passengers.

'Oh, I'm an inveterate, almost a professional observer,' I replied, 'and
with that vice I am as well occupied as an old woman in the sun with her
knitting. It puts it in my power, in any situation, to _see_ things. I
shall see them even here and I shall com