" How small a part she did not mention. "The
rest was made comprehensible by Mr. Frazer's explanation."

"I cannot believe that one of the ship's officers would speak ill of
the captain's daughters, madam--and that you refer to them we all
understand."

"Speak ill? Oh, he did not--and who has, indeed? Ill? What can you
mean? I merely mentioned it as a funny, melodramatic sort of
performance, just like a foolish little girl. Of course there was
nothing really out of the way, only a bit of imprudence--and without a
mother, or chaperone, what can one expect?"

"You speak of what I was about to mention; they have no mother. That
is enough to make any older woman feel it her motherly duty to guard
and counsel them, I'm sure," was the calm reply. "We all must agree on
that."

"Yes, indeed!" ventured Mrs. Windemere in her small voice. "Poor young
things."

"I don't think they seem to need your pity, mother!" cried Janet
sharply, looking across at the merry group, in which were the Hosmer
sisters. "Not in that way, at any rate."

"And," added Mrs. Campbell with an exaggerated drawl, "we who are not
of an age to look upon them in a motherly light may not appreciate all
those feelings. They amuse me, to be sure, but I had scarcely thought
of adopting them."

"Nor their father, either?" put in the attache clumsily, hoping to
raise a laugh and dispel the thunder in the air. But he only drew the
lightning upon himself. She gave him one look that silenced him, and,
lifting the fan in her lap, said languidly,

"How very warm it is! Strange how little the most of us understand the
necessity of fitting our conversation to the weather, if we would be
agreeable. Discussions and personalities, if ever allowable, are only
suited to a zero temperature. Have you noticed the flying-fish, this
morning? How delightful it must be to plunge into that cool water
to-day! I wonder if they fly out into the heat just for the fun of
cooling off afterwards?"

"Quite a suggestion, Mrs. Campbell!" laughed the traveler. "I believe
I'll try it," and, bowing lightly, with a flash of the eyes that met
her own in quick defiance, he turned away.

As he passed around the bulkhead screening Lady Moreham, she rose and
said in a low voice,

"I want to thank you! Many a life has been ruined by base
insinuations. A vain woman's tongue is a merciless weapon. I like the
little sisters, and believe them pure-hearted children. It was