asked her gravely, and somewhat severely, if she had suffered much
from the heat of the day before.

"Yes," said Lydia, "it was very hot."

"I'm told it was the hottest day of the summer, so far," continued
Staniford, with the same severity.

"I want to know!" cried Lydia.

The young man did not say anything more.

As Dunham lit his cigar at Staniford's on deck, the former said
significantly, "What a very American thing!"

"What a bore!" answered the other.

Dunham had never been abroad, as one might imagine from his calling
Lydia's presence a very American thing, but he had always consorted
with people who had lived in Europe; he read the Revue des Deux Mondes
habitually, and the London weekly newspapers, and this gave him the
foreign stand-point from which he was fond of viewing his native
world. "It's incredible," he added. "Who in the world can she be?"

"Oh, _I_ don't know," returned Staniford, with a cold disgust.
"I should object to the society of such a young person for a month or
six weeks under the most favorable circumstances, and with frequent
respites; but to be imprisoned on the same ship with her, and to have
her on one's mind and in one's way the whole time, is more than I
bargained for. Captain Jenness should have told us; though I suppose