"A shop-girl in my store?" he murmured, bewildered. "I knew I had seen
her somewhere."

Blanche laughed a little irritating laugh.

"What a splendid item it would make for the society papers," she said.
"The junior partner marries one of his own shop-girls, or, worse still,
the junior partner and one of his shop-girls leave New York on the _City
of Buffalo_, and are married in England. I hope that the reporters will
not get the particulars of the affair." Then, rising, she left the
amazed young man to his thoughts.

George Morris saw nothing more of Miss Katherine Earle that day.

"I wonder what that vixen has said to her," he thought, as he turned in
for the night.


FIFTH DAY.

In the early morning of the fifth day out, George Morris paced the deck
alone.

"Shop-girl or not," he had said to himself, "Miss Katherine Earle is
much more of a lady than the other ever was." But as he paced the deck,
and as Miss Earle did not appear, he began to wonder more and more what
had been said to her in the long talk of yesterday forenoon. Meanwhile
Miss Earle sat in her own state-room thinking over the same subject.
Blanche had sweetly asked her for permission to sit down beside her.