selle T

it was yet sufficient to meet my wants, and mentally I cast myself adrift from Wapping with a psalm of thankfulness. The Sea Queen was to sail on Friday, and so I had little time left; yet by a lucky chance I was enabled to dispose of my practice "on the nail," to use a convenient colloquial

nd the wind was peppered with sleet; a depressing proem to our unknown voyage. We swung at anchor there until Mr. Morland came aboard with his friends, and we left on the turn of the tide about midnight. I did not see Mr. Morland arrive, as I was bu

thank him, as this form of salutation seemed to require. But he

t I'm not purser for nothing. Blame me if I sup with that crew until they shake down a

, and thought him int

re. Well, a tot won't hurt us now. I can tell you I've been hustled." He had recourse to a decanter of whisky. "This is the real stuff. I took care of that. Le

nd I put down my glass and reve

lady-rippers both. I saw them w

tell me where we'

sly. "I hope we're running out of

ed for twelve m

"I'll ask the old man to-morrow if his prickles

oughts on leaving the English coast. Besides, we were bound down channel, and should keep company with ou

o the ladies' compartments, as well as a private room to Mr. Morland's. Breakfast was mainly interesting as introducing me practically for the first time to my companions. We were then abreast of the Isle of Wight, and were keeping well away towards France. The chief officer I now, to my astonishment, discovered to be a man of title. Sir John Barraclough was a tall, loose-limbed, good-looking man

d in an indifferent manner. "Hope

a most fastidious-looking man, with a brown Vandyke beard and a flow of good manners. Seeing me and Ho

. Phillimore. This your first voyag

iefly, he relapsed into silence

bout the old man," confided Lane as

for the first person my eyes fell on was n

ed to see you h

plied in his self-satisfied little way. "I'm he

ll us all where we are bound f

I have no doubt," he said at last. "At present Mr. Morland a

walked on. "He is too fussy and by-your-leave-please for me. Mad

nsible, I suppo

een at sea fifteen years, and this brat hasn't so much as been sick in t

already discovered to me. The passengers were not visible during the morning, but in the afternoon I received a message calling

commend for sea-sickness, Dr.

nd mentioned cocaine as probably the best, adding that

e said, and with a bow intim

of a martinet and the expression of a schoolmaster who set his pup

ce. Once, at eight bells, I noticed, from my point of observation, the woman stop, lean across the railing, and point towards the coast of France, which was fast fading into the gathering mists. She seemed to speak, her face turned level with her shoulders towards the man. He put out a hand and snapped his fingers, and they presently resumed their promen

ul voice of Pye, "have you had

And I have lived long in silence and routine as no doubt y

e about myself. You see, I'm a Londoner, and I shall miss thos

apparently, others are not." His silence seemed to inquire of me.

dently firm on his legs, and-and his companion. I suppose I may t

jarred on me. "For I suppose we shall discover the

ewhat circumspect. It's difficult to get out of it. But there's

mystery," I sai

ast, if I have, I have forgotten. It is a friend o

me one hurriedly approaching. "Is it the doctor?" said

nce, sir. Mr. Morla

-way down the deck when a woman came

want you to see to Mlle. Chat

the sea, and it is even undertaking a risk for some people to travel on that element. Clearly it was, as Pye hinted, for the French lady that my prescription had been required. Outside t

ost wonderful déshabille, my patient. Mlle. Chateray was of middle height, of a pleasant fulness, and dark of feature. She had large eyes that, as

pse, Dr. Phillimore," said

the mal-de-mer had been merely provocative. I took her hand without ceremony

w, and there were ports not only in England. I had a kind face and would do as she bade me.... Very well, then, let her be put ashore. She began

in the meantime, while the yacht is going about, y

o struggle, and then said more qu

e, and I turned away at

are, mademoiselle," I said pe

ateray had taken the draught, I turned to her maid: "She will be quieter now," I said. "Let me

loquent lines of a strong throat and the square shoulders underneath. The lace over her bosom stirred with her breathing, and to my fancy at the moment she was as a st

e shall be landed?" s

ise anything in such

ce, for we were now outside the

lief, then, I under

-night, though I cannot say the hy

ce, but whether it was of pity or

not put the yacht

g to ask him,

r," said she simply

ess," I respond

h the air of condescension. There was no necessity

had vaguely bothered me during my administrations recurred, now more insi

company, to which little Pye was now joined, and as I looked down and across the table (from which only Holgate was absent on duty) their marvellous unlikeness to him struck me. Even Sir John Barraclough and Lane seemed by comparison more or less of a piece, though the first officer ignored the purser quite markedly. Captain Day, I discovered, had some taste in letters, and as that al

leasing, as it seemed in a way to recall what I almost began to consider old times-the time that was in the "Three Tuns." Pye mixed

like?" inqui

ejoined. "I understood from

so," said Pye, "b

e French," I sa

ce, but Holgate, ignoring the obvious re

am I working like a navvy for a bare living, never been abl

bachelor,"

t as capable as Mr. Morland on his Wall Street, or wherever i

ing my thoughts, "how you

once out of them it was too late. Who is going to adapt a youth of twenty-one, without capital, to a commercial life

I sententiously, not being gre

rsued Holgate, "I was in Paris for a bit,

garding the theatre suddenly sent a message to my memory and ligh

bizo

ng, and Pye removed

to ask, is Trebizond

only that I have made a discove

ere was

hy to hear it," sugg

ween his fingers and looked at m

my watch. "I'm sorry, I must see my patie

s, knocking on the boudoir d

still sleeping,"

" I replied, "so that if it be nece

e in attendance if requ

bo

wered, though I must confess to

my dismissal at the hands of the arrogant beauty

threw myself on my bunk and took down a book at random from my little shelf. Out of its pages tumbled an evening news-sheet which I now remembered to have bought of a screaming boy as I hurried into the dock gates

I passed over the blatant racing items and murder trials with less than my customary distaste, and was rambling lei

. The name of the lady who has so infatuated him is

ken me back, by a sudden gust of memory, to certain pleasant days in Paris before I was banished to the East End. I had frequented the theatres and the concert-rooms, and I

ntence, which, ere that illumination, had had

support and sympathy of h

ut I saw no reason in the world for it now. I had left my glass untouched

till seated as

ght, doctor?" i

ed itself. When I was here it was of small dimensions. Now it

azed at me

man," urged th

ion?" I asked the la

at it is, I will tell you

and pointed to the paragraph. He rea

?" he

ou know," I said, addressing Pye. "The la

he exclaimed, but Pye was quite s

dn't name her," I went on.

" said Pye unemotionally

aid Holgate wit

tions, my dear Holgate," he remarked, "I have fo

"I suppose, if you're right, that we carry C?sar and hi

nder!" I

and I read now another sen

inherits more than a million pounds from his mother, he is in a position to snap his fingers at the

d up at

hasis on the singular, and then he waved his arm melodramati

just distribution of this world's goods," echoin

ressive face. His admirable

his gossip all over

d me. "It is nothing to me. I told you because

r chum," said th

out of the excitement of my discovery. Certain