u'd better go with him,' said the child gravely. 'He makes lovely
presents.'

'Does he?' Margaret laughed again.

'"A fortress that parleys, or a woman who listens, is lost,'" put in
Griggs, quoting an old French proverb.

'Then I won't listen,' Margaret said.

Mr. Van Torp planted himself more firmly on his sturdy legs, for the
ship was rolling a little.

'I'll give you a book, Madame Cordova,' he said.

His habit of constantly repeating the name of the person with whom
he was talking irritated her extremely. She was not smiling when she
answered.

'Thank you. I have more books than I can possibly read.'

'Yes. But you have not the one I will give you, and it happens to be
the only one you want.'

'But I don't want any book at all! I don't want to read!'

'Yes, you do, Madame Cordova. You want to read this one, and it's the
only copy on board, and if you'll take a little walk with me I'll give
it to you.'

As he spoke he very slowly drew a new book from the depths of the wide
pocket in his overcoat, but only far enough to show Margaret the first
words of the title, and he kept his aggressive blue eyes fixed on her
face. A faint blush came into her cheeks at once and he let the volume
slip back. Griggs, being on his other side, had not seen it, and it
meant nothing to Miss More. To the latter's surprise Margaret pushed
her heavy rug from her knees and let her feet slip from the chair to
the ground. Her eyes met Griggs's as she rose, and seeing that his
look asked her whether he was to carry out her previous instructions
and walk beside her, she shook her head.

'Nine times out of ten, proverbs are true,' he said in a tone of
amusement.

Mr. Van Torp's hard face expressed no triumph when Margaret stood
beside him, ready to walk. She had yielded, as he had been sure she
would; he turned from the other passengers to go round to the weather
side of the ship, and she went with him submissively. Just at the
point where the wind and the fine spray would have met them if they
had gone on, he stopped in the lee of a big ventilator. There was no
one in sight of them now.

'Excuse me for making you get up,' he said. 'I wanted to see you alone
for a moment.'

Margaret said nothing in answer to this apology, and she met his fixed
eyes coldly.

'You were with Miss Bamberger when she died,' he said.

Margaret bent her head gravely in assent. His face was as
expressionless as a stone.

'I thought she might hav