At first, I had decided to open a flirtation with her; but, in the
rapidly growing intimacy of the voyage, I was soon impressed by
her charming manner and my feelings became too deep and
reverential for a mere flirtation. Moreover, she accepted my
attentions with a certain degree of favor. She condescended to
laugh at my witticisms and display an interest in my stories. Yet
I felt that I had a rival in the person of a young man with quiet
and refined tastes; and it struck me, at times, that she preferred
his taciturn humor to my Parisian frivolity. He formed one in the
circle of admirers that surrounded Miss Nelly at the time she
addressed to me the foregoing question. We were all comfortably
seated in out deck-chairs. The storm of the preceding evening had
cleared the sky. The weather was now delightful.

"I have no definite knowledge, mademoiselle," I replied, "but can
not we, ourselves, investigate the mystery quite as well as the
detective Ganimard, the personal enemy of Arsene Lupin?"

"Oh! oh! you are progressing very fast, monsieur."

"Not at all, mademoiselle. In the first place, let me ask, do you
find the problem a complicated one?"

"Very complicated."

"Have you forgotten the key we hold for the solution to the
problem?"

"What key?"