"That is why I did not wish to tell you what I had been thinking
of--just for fear that you would put a wrong construction on it--as you
have done. But now you can't say anything much harsher to me than you
have said, and so I tell you frankly just what I thought, and why I
asked you those questions which you seem to think are so impertinent.
Besides this, you know, a sea acquaintance is different from any
other acquaintance. As I said, the first time I spoke to you--or the
second--there is no one here to introduce us. On land, when a person is
introduced to another person, he does not say, 'Miss Earle, this is Mr.
Morris, who is a younger partner in the house of So-and-so.' He merely
says, 'Miss Earle, Mr. Morris,' and there it is. If you want to find
anything out about him you can ask your introducer or ask your friends,
and you can find out. Now, on shipboard it is entirely different.
Suppose, for instance, that I did not tell you who I am, and--if you
will pardon me for suggesting such an absurd supposition---imagine that
you wanted to find out, how could you do it?"

Miss Earle looked at him for a moment, and then she answered--

"I would ask that blonde young lady."

This reply was so utterly unexpected by Morris that he looked at her
with wide eyes, the picture of a man dumbfounded. At that moment the
smoking-room steward came up to them and said--

"Will you have your coffee now, sir?"

"Coffee!" cried Morris, as if he had never heard the word before.
"Coffee!"