d a playful little squeeze.
That was a nerve restorer.

"Bishop," says he, "I must tell you that I am madly, hopelessly, in
love with this lady, and that I mean to make her my wife."

"Isn't he the dearest booby you ever saw!" gurgles Madam Brooklini.
"He has been saying nothing but that for the last five days. And now
he says he is going to follow me across the ocean and keep on saying
it. But you must stop, Ferdy; really, you must."

"Never!" says Ferdy, gettin' a good grip on the cut glass exhibit.

"Such persistence!" says Ducky, shiftin' her searchlights from him to
us and back again. "And he knows I have said I would not marry again.
I mustn't. My managers don't like it. Why, every time I marry they
raise a most dreadful row. But what can I do? Ferdy insists, you see;
and if he keeps it up, I just know I shall have to take him. Please be
good, Ferdy!"

Wouldn't that make you seasick? But the Bishop comes to the front like
he'd heard a call to man the lifeboat.

"It may influence you somewhat," says he, "to learn that for nearly a
year Ferdinand has been secretly engaged to a very estimable young
woman."

"I know," says she, tearin' off a little giggle. "Ferdy has told me
all about Alicia. What a wicked, deceitful wretch he is! isn't he?
Aren't you ashamed, Ferdy, to act so foolish over me?"

If Ferdy was, he hid it well. All he seemed willin' to do was to sit
there, holdin' her hand and lookin' as soft as a custard pie, while the
Lady Williamsburg tells what a tough job she has dodgin' matrimony, on
account of her yieldin' disposition. I didn't know whether to hide my
face in my hat, or go out and lean over the rail. I guess the Bishop
wa'n't feelin' any too comfortable either; but he was there to do his
duty, so he makes one last stab.

"Ferdinand," says he, "your mother asked me to say that----"

"Tell her I was never so happy in my life," says Ferdy, pattin' a
broadside of solitaires and marquise rings.

"Come on, Bishop," says I. "There's only one cure for a complaint of
that kind, and it looks like Ferdy was bound to take it."

We was just startin' for the deck, when the door was blocked by a
steward luggin' in another sheaf of roses, and followed by a couple of
middle aged, jolly lookin' gents, smokin' cigars and marchin' arm in
arm. One was a tall, well built chap in a silk hat; the other was a
short, pussy, ruby beaked gent in French flannels and a Panama.

"Hello, sweety!"