"Do you?" said Mr. Morris, shortly.
"Yes, I do. Have you noticed her? She sits over there at the long table near the centre. You must have seen her; she is so very, very pretty, that you cannot help noticing her."
"I am not looking after pretty women this voyage," said Morris, savagely.
"Oh, are you not? Well, I must thank you for that. That is evidently a very sincere compliment. No, I can't call it a compliment, but a sincere remark, I think the first sincere one you have made to-day."
"Why, what do you mean?" said Morris, looking at her in a bewildered sort of way.
"You have been looking after me this morning, have you not, and yesterday morning? And taking ever so much pains to be helpful and entertaining, and now, all at once you sayWell, you know what you said just now."
"Oh yes. Well, you see"
"Oh, you can't get out of it, Mr. Morris. It was said, and with evident sincerity."
"Then you really think you are pretty?" said Mr. Morris, looking at his companion, who flushed under the remark.
"Ah, now," she said, "you imagine you are carrying the war into the enemy's country. But I don't at all appreciate a remark like that. I don't know but I dislike it even more than I do your compliments, which is saying a good deal."
"I assure you," said Morris, stiffly, "that I have not intended to pay any compliments. I am not a man who pays compliments."
"Not even left-handed ones?"
"Not even any kind, that I know of. I try as a general thing to speak the truth."
"Ah, and shame your hearers?"
"Well, I don't care who I shame as long as I succeed in speaking the truth."
"Very well, then; tell me the truth. Have you noticed this handsome young lady I speak of?"
"Yes, I have seen her."
"Don't you think she is very pretty?"
"Yes, I think she is."
"Don't you think she is the prettiest woman on the ship?"
"Yes, I think she is."
"Are you afraid of pretty women?"
"No, I don't think I am."
"Then, tell me why, the moment she appeared on the deck yesterday morning, you were so much agitated that you spilled most of my coffee in the saucer?"
"Did I appear agitated?" asked Morris, with some hesitation.
"Now, I consider that sort of thing worse than a direct prevarication."
"What sort of thing?"
"Why, a disingenuous answer. You know you appeared agitated. You know you were agitated. You know you had a camp-stool, and that you intended to sit down here and drink your coffee. All at once you changed your mind, and that change was coincident with the appearance on deck of the handsome young lady I speak of. I merely ask why?"
"Now, look here, Miss Earle, even the worst malefactor is not expected to incriminate himself. I can refuse to answer, can I not?"
"Certainly you may. You may refuse to answer anything, if you like. It was only because you were boasting about speaking the truth that I thought I should test your truth-telling qualities. I have been expecting every moment that you would say to me I was very impertinent, and that it was no business of mine, which would have been quite true. There, you see, you had a beautiful chance of speaking the truth which you let slip entirely unnoticed. But there is the breakfast gong. Now, I must confess to being very hungry indeed. I think I shall go down into the saloon."
"Please take my arm, Miss Earle," said the young man.
"Oh, not at all," replied that young lady; "I want something infinitely more stable. I shall work my way along this brass rod until I can make a bolt for the door. If you want to make yourself real useful, go and stand on the stairway, or the companion-way I think you call it, and if I come through the door with too great force you'll prevent me from going down the stairs."
"'Who ran to help me when I fell,'" quoted Mr. Morris, as he walked along ahead of her, having some difficulty in maintaining his equilibrium.
"I wouldn't mind the falling," replied the young lady, "if you only would some pretty story tell; but you are very prosaic, Mr. Morris. Do you ever read anything at all?"
"I never read when I have somebody more interesting than a book to talk to."
"Oh, thank you. Now, if you will get into position on the stairway, I shall make my attempts at getting to the door."
"I feel like a base-ball catcher," said Morris, taking up a position somewhat similar to that of the useful man behind the bat.
Miss Earle, however, waited until the ship was on an even keel, then walked to the top of the companion-way, and, deftly catching up the train of her dress with as much composure as if she were in a ballroom, stepped lightly down the stairway. Looking smilingly over her shoulder at the astonished baseball catcher, she said
"I wish you would not stand in that ridiculous attitude, but come and accompany me to the breakfast table. As I told you, I am very hungry."
The steamer gave a lurch that nearly precipitated Morris down the stairway, and the next moment he was by her side.
"Are you fond of base-ball?" she said to him.
"You should see me in the park when our side makes a home run. Do you like the game?"
"I never saw a game in my life."
"What! you an American girl, and never saw a game of base-ball? Why, I am astonished."
"I did not say that I was an American girl."
"Oh, that's a fact. I took you for one, however."
They were both of them so intent on their conversation in walking up the narrow way between the long table and the short ones, that neither of them noticed the handsome blonde young lady standing beside her chair looking at them. It was only when that young lady said, "Why, Mr. Morris, is this you?" and when that gentleman jumped as if a cannon had been fired beside him, that either of them noticed their fair fellow-traveller.
"Yes," stammered Morris, "it is!"
The young lady smiled sweetly and held out her hand, which Morris took in an awkward way.
"I was just going to ask you," she said, "when you came aboard. How ridiculous that would have been. Of course, you have been here all the time. Isn't it curious that we have not met each other?we of all persons in the world."
Morris, who had somewhat recovered his breath, looked steadily at her as she said this, and her eyes, after encountering his gaze for a moment, sank to the floor.
Miss Earle, who had waited for a moment expecting that Morris would introduce her, but seeing that he had for the time being apparently forgotten everything on earth, quietly left them, and took her place at the breakfast table. The blonde young lady looked up again at Mr. Morris, and said
"I am afraid I am keeping you from breakfast."
"Oh, that doesn't matter."
"I am afraid, then," she continued sweetly, "that I am keeping you from your very interesting table companion."
"Yes, that does matter," said Morris, looking at her. "I wish you good morning, madam." And with that he left her and took his place at the head of the small table.
There was a vindictive look in the blonde young lady's pretty eyes as she sank into her own seat at the breakfast table.
Miss Earle had noticed the depressing effect which even the sight of the blonde lady exercised on Morris the day before, and she looked forward, therefore, to rather an uncompanionable breakfast. She was surprised, however, to see that Morris had an air of jaunty joviality, which she could not help thinking was rather forced.
"Now," he said, as he sat down on the sofa at the head of the table, "I think it's about time for us to begin our chutney fight."
"Our what?" asked the young lady, looking up at him with open eyes.
"Is it possible," he said, "that you have crossed the ocean and never engaged in the chutney fight? I always have it on this line."