Ne had now reached a state of the utmost satisfaction with
himself and the situation. Betty was friendly and charming. He
walked with her, and he talked with her by the hour; and always
he was being entangled deeper and deeper in the web of her
attraction. "When alone he would pace the deck recalling every
word she had spoken. There was that little air of high breeding
which was Betty's that fascinated him. He had known something of
the other sort, those who had arrived at prosperity with manners
and speech that still reflected the meaner condition from which
they had risen.

"I haven't a thing to offer her--this is plain madness of mine!"
he kept telling himself, and then the expression of his face
would become grim and determined. No more of the river for him
--he'd get hold of some land and go to raising cotton; that was the
way money was made.

Slow as The Naiad was, the days passed much too swiftly for him.
When Memphis was reached their friendly intercourse would come to
an end. There would be her brother, of whom she had occasionally
spoken--he would be pretty certain to have the ideas of his
class.

As for Betty, she liked this tall fellow who helped her through
the fatigue of those long days, when there was only the unbroken
sweep of the forest on either hand, with here and there a
clearing where some outrageous soul was making a home for
himself. The shores became duller, wilder, more uninteresting as
they advanced, and then at last they entered the Mississippi, and