you come from?"

"I'm running between Liverpool and Baltimore now, in the Planets.
They're comfortable ships, but I don't admire the Western ocean. It's
too savage and cold. How is Macandrew? I came up from Liverpool because
I felt I must see him again. I heard he was here."

From the way he talked, I thought he preferred those subjects requiring
the least effort for a casual occasion. "Now and then," I had to tell
him, "some of us have wondered what happened to the _Cygnet_."

Hanson's smile became effulgent. My remark might have reminded him of a
most enjoyable joke, but he made no sign, while enjoying it privately,
that he intended to share it with me at any time.

"There was a _Cygnet_, wasn't there?" he asked, when my patience had
nearly gone. "I should like somebody to confirm it. The reason I came
to this house tonight, to be candid, was just to see this room again, to
settle a doubt I had. Didn't Macandrew stand over there, and show
concern because a fair, plump woman wasn't quick enough with his beer?"

I admitted this, as an encouragement. "But when I got here tonight,"
continued Hanson, "the change made me feel my mind had lost hold. I must
say it's a relief to see you."

"Has this anything to do with the _Cygnet_?" I asked.

"Everything. I had the time of my life. I wouldn't have missed it for
anything. But somehow, now and then, I want to be quite sure I had it
myself, and not some other fellow." He beamed with the very remembrance