"I wish to goodness," said Morris, harshly, "that if you are going to
have a fit of crying you would not have it on deck, and where people can
see you."

The young woman at once straightened up and flashed a look at him in
which there were no traces of her former emotion.

"People!" she said, scornfully. "Much _you_ care about people. It is
because Miss Katherine Earle saw me that you are annoyed. You are afraid
that it will interfere with your flirtation with her."

"Flirtation?"

"Yes, flirtation. Surely it can't be anything more serious?"

"Why should it not be something more serious?" asked Morris, very
coldly. The blue eyes opened wide in apparent astonishment.

"Would you _marry_ her?" she said, with telling emphasis upon the word.

"Why not?" he answered. "Any man might be proud to marry a lady like
Miss Earle."

"A lady! Much of a lady she is! Why, she is one of your own shop-girls.
You know it."

"Shop-girls?" cried Morris, in astonishment.

"Yes, shop-girls. You don't mean to say that she has concealed that fact
from you, or that you didn't know it by seeing her in the store?"