eak as
many laws of convention as they please. Well, they can't. There's
always some scandal in the papers about them. There was some rumor of
her being engaged to the Duke of What's-his-name, but it fell through
because she wouldn't settle a fortune on him. Only sensible thing she
ever did, probably."

"And did you notice who sat next to her at luncheon?"

"A gentleman with a past, Mr. Craig tells me."

"I dare say Miss Chetwood has a past, too, if one but knew. To travel
alone like this!"

Busybodies! Martha rose indignantly and returned to the other side of
the deck. Meddlers? What did they know? To peck like daws at one so
far above them, so divinely far above them! Her natural impulse had
been to turn upon them and give them the tongue-lashing they deserved.
But she had lived too long with Elsa not to have learned
self-repression, and that the victory is always with those who stoop
not to answer. Nevertheless, she was alarmed. Elsa must be warned.

All Elsa said was: "My dear Martha, in a few days they and their
tittle-tattle will pass out of my existence, admitting that they have
ever entered it. I repeat, my life is all my own, and that I am
concerned only with those whom I wish to retain as my friends. Gossip
is the shibboleth of the mediocre, and, thank heaven, I am not
mediocre."

While dressing for dinner Elsa discovered a note on the floor of her
cabin. The writing was unfamiliar. She opened it and sought first the
signature. Slowly her cheeks reddened, and her lips twisted in
disdain. She did not read the note, but the natural keenness of her
eye caught the name of Warrington. She tore the letter into scraps
which she tossed out the port-hole. What a vile thing the man was! He
had had the effrontery to sign his name. He must be punished.

It was as late as ten o'clock when she and Warrington went up to the
bow and gazed down the cut-water. Never had she seen anything so
weirdly beautiful as the ribbons of phosphorescence which fell away on
each side, luminously blue and flaked with dancing starlike particles,
through which, ever and anon, flying-fish, dripping with the fire, spun
outward like tongues of flame.

"Beautiful, beautiful! This is the one spot on the ship. And in all
my travels I have never seen this before. All silence and darkness in
front of us, and beneath, that wonderful fire. Thanks for bringing me
here. I should not have known what I was missing."

"