etly. "I am not the
superficial ass you take me for."

"I have only your word for that," she returned, striking without pity
because for a second he had startled her out of her contemptuous
attitude.

He looked at her in silence, and again her indignation arose full-armed
against him. How dared he--this clown in woman's clothes--speak to her
at such a moment of that which she rightly held to be the holiest thing
on earth?

"How can you expect me to believe you?" she demanded. "You tell me you
are in earnest. But you know as well as I do that that is a mere figure
of speech. You are never in earnest. You play all day long. You will do
it all your life. You never do anything worth mentioning. Other people
do the work. You simply skim the surface of things. You are merely a
looker-on."

"A very intelligent looker-on, though," said Charlie, in a tone she did
not wholly understand.

"And if I don't do anything worth doing, it is possibly lack of
opportunity, isn't it? I can do many things, from driving engines to
playing skittles. Take a man for what he is, not for what he does! It is
the only fair estimate. Otherwise the blatant fools get all the honey."

Molly uttered a scornful little laugh.

"This is paltry," she exclaimed. "A man's actions are the actual man. He
can make his own opportunities. No, Mr. Cleveland. You will never
convince me of your intrinsic worth by talking."

She paused, as it were, involuntarily. Again that startled feeling of
uncertainty was at her heart. There was a momentary silence. Then
Charlie made her an odd, jerky bow, and without a single word further
turned and left her.

Quaint as was his attire, ungainly as were his movements, there was in
his withdrawal a touch of dignity, even a hint of the sublime; and Molly
could not understand it.

She paced the length of the deck and sat down to regain her composure.
The interview had left her considerably ruffled, even ill at ease.

III

She had been sitting there for some moments when suddenly, with a great
throb that seemed to vibrate through the whole length of the great
vessel from end to end, the engines ceased. The music in the large
saloon, where the first-class passengers were dancing, came to an abrupt
stop. There was a pause, a thrilling, intense pause; and then the
confusion of voices.

A man ran quickly by her to the bridge, where she could dimly discern
the first-officer on watch. She sprang up, dreading she knew not