"She has told you?" he said.

"Yes. She is--my companion." I saw that she did not use the word that
first came to her.

"How strangely things occur! And yet," he added musingly, "I suppose,
after all, coincidence is not so strange in these days of much travel,
particularly with people whose lives are connected--more or less."

"Whose lives are connected--more or less," she repeated after him, in a
steely tone.

It seemed to me that I had received my cue to leave. I bowed myself
away, and went about my duties. As we steamed bravely through the
Straits of Babelmandeb, with Perim on our left, rising lovely through the
milky haze, I came on deck again, and they were still near where I had
left them an hour before. I passed, glancing at them as I did so. They
did not look towards me. His eyes were turned to the shore, and hers
were fixed on him. I saw an expression on her lips that gave her face
new character. She was speaking, as I thought, clearly and mercilessly.
I could not help hearing her words as I passed them.

"You are going to be that--you!" There was a ring of irony in her tone.
I heard nothing more in words, but I saw him turn to her somewhat
sharply, and I caught the deep notes of his voice as he answered her.
When, a moment after, I looked back, she had gone below.

Galt Roscoe had a seat at Captain Ascott's table, and I did not see
anything of him at meal-times, but elsewhere I soon saw him a great deal.
He appeared to seek my company. I was glad of this, for I found that he