exhibition, as if she were saying to him: "This is what they look
like; see how comfortable I make them. Aren't they rather queer and
rather dear little people? But they leave me perfectly free. Oh I
can assure you of that. Besides, you must see it for yourself."
Mr. and Mrs. Day looked up at the high functionary who thus unbent
to them with very little change of countenance; then looked at each
other in the same way. He saluted, he inclined himself a moment;
but Pandora shook her head, she seemed to be answering for them; she
made little gestures as if in explanation to the good Captain of
some of their peculiarities, as for instance that he needn't expect
them to speak. They closed their eyes at last; she appeared to have
a kind of mesmeric influence on them, and Miss Day walked away with
the important friend, who treated her with evident consideration,
bowing very low, for all his importance, when the two presently
after separated. Vogelstein could see she was capable of making an
impression; and the moral of our little matter is that in spite of
Mrs. Dangerfield, in spite of the resolutions of his prudence, in
spite of the limits of such acquaintance as he had momentarily made
with her, in spite of Mr. and Mrs. Day and the young man in the
smoking-room, she had fixed his attention.

It was in the course of the evening after the scene with the Captain
that he joined her, awkwardly, abruptly, irresistibly, on the deck,
where she was pacing to and fro alone, the hour being auspiciously
mild and the stars remarkably fine. There were scattered talkers
and smokers and couples, unrecognisable, that moved quickly through
the gloom. The vessel dipped with long regular pulsations; vague
and spectral under the low stars, its swaying pinnacles spotted here
and there with lights, it seemed to rush through the darkness faster
than by day. Count Otto had come up to walk, and as the girl