after him gratefully. He
always enjoyed meeting attractive girls who were engaged, as it left
him no choice in the matter, and excused him from finding out whether
or not that particular young woman was the one.

Mrs. Downs and her niece proved to be experienced sailors, and faced
the heavy sea that met the New York outside of Sandy Hook with
unconcern. Carlton joined them, and they stood together leaning with
their backs to the rail, and trying to fit the people who flitted past
them to the names on the passenger list.

"The young lady in the sailor suit," said Miss Morris, gazing at the
top of the smoke-stack, "is Miss Kitty Flood, of Grand Rapids. This is
her first voyage, and she thinks a steamer is something like a yacht,
and dresses for the part accordingly. She does not know that it is
merely a moving hotel."

"I am afraid," said Carlton, "to judge from her agitation, that hers is
going to be what the professionals call a 'dressing-room' part. Why is
it," he asked, "that the girls on a steamer who wear gold anchors and
the men in yachting-caps are always the first to disappear? That man
with the sombrero," he went on, "is James M. Pollock, United States
Consul to Mauritius; he is going out to his post. I know he is the
consul, because he comes from Fort Worth, Texas, and is therefore
admirably fitted to speak either French or the native language of the
island."

"Oh, we don't send consuls to Mauritius," laughed Miss Morris.
"Mauritius is one of those places from which you buy stamps, but no one
really lives or goes there."

"Where are you going, may I ask?" inquired Carlton.

Miss Morris said that they were making their way to Constantinople and
Athens, and then to Rome; that as they had not had the time to take the
southern route, they purposed to journey across the Continent direct
from Paris to the Turkish capital by the Orient Express.

"We shall be a few days in London, and in Paris only long enough for
some clothes," she replied.

"The trousseau," thought Carlton. "Weeks is what she should have said."

The three sat together at the captain's table, and as the sea continued
rough, saw little of either the captain or his other guests, and were
thrown much upon the society of each other. They had innumerable
friends and interests in common; and Mrs. Downs, who had been
everywhere, and for long seasons at a time, proved as alive as her
niece, and Carlton conceived a great liking for her. S