regular introductions here. The acquaintance gives me pleasure, but it
is not nearly so liberal as I hope it may become."

She did not answer, but smiled at me over her shoulder as she passed down
the staircase, and the next instant I could have bitten my tongue for
playing the cavalier as I had done; for showing, as I think I did, that
she had an influence over me--an influence peculiar to herself, and
difficult to account for when not in her presence.

I sat down, lit a cigar, and went over in my mind all that had been said
between us; all that had occurred in my cabin after dinner; every minute
since we left Colombo was laid bare to its minutest detail. Lascars
slipped by me in the half-darkness, the voices of two lovers near
alternated with their expressive silences, and from the music saloon
there came the pretty strains of a minuet, played very deftly. Under the
influence of this music my thoughts became less exact; they drifted. My
eyes shifted to the lights of the 'Porcupine' in the distance, and from
them again to the figures passing and repassing me on the deck. The
"All's well" of the look-out seemed to come from an endless distance; the
swish of water against the dividing hull of the 'Fulvia' sounded like a
call to silence from another world; the phosphorescence swimming through
the jarred waters added to the sensation of unreality and dreams. These
dreams grew, till they were broken by a hand placed on my shoulder, and
I saw that one of the passengers, Clovelly, an English novelist, had
dropped out from the promenade to talk with me. He saw my mood, however,
and said quietly: "Give me a light for my cigar, will you? Then, astride
this stool, I'll help you to make inventory of the rest of them.
A pretty study; for, at our best, 'What fools we mortals be!'"

"'Motley is your only wear,'" was my reply; and for a full half-hour,