"I've fitted two bits of the red, but I haven't an _idea_ what it's
about. It seems divided into small squares."

"A wall perhaps. Bricks." Bedford examined the pieces with a practised
eye. "Yes! evidently bricks. There was a bit somewhere with a rim of
blue. That must be the junction with the sky. Let's work at that."

Katrine worked for ten minutes on end, resorted in desperation to the
old maid's expedient, and affixed each blue bit in turns to the
obstinate red. When each persistently refused to fit, impatience seized
her, and an impulse to dash her hands wildly over the board, when
suddenly, inexplicably, a piece which had hitherto obstinately refused
to fit, repented itself after the manner of jig-saw pieces, and slid
meekly into its place, exhibiting thereby an enlightening boundary of
brick wall against blue sky. The tingling eagerness to continue that
line, to discover whereto it led, was a revelation of the inherent
childishness of the human heart. Katrine jumped on her seat, scuffled
among the pieces with claw-like fingers, breathed loud and deep, while
Bedford looked on, smiling to himself, and flicking likely pieces
towards her, so that to her might fall the satisfaction of continuing
the chain. Above all things he was anxious to keep her amused, and to
prevent her thoughts from turning to the tragic event of the day before.
Last evening she had looked pitifully shaken. Mrs Mannering had
reported a distressed night; he dreaded each fresh happening of the
monotonous life which would link it with the day that had gone.

The first jar came with the partaking of the eleven o'clock deck lunch.
Katrine's face blanched suddenly as she raised it from the table to
confront a steward, bearing the glass of milk and soda, and the bars of
chocolate which were her own chosen refreshment. A shake of the head
dismissed the man, but the mischief had been done. Impossible now not
to recall how, twenty-four hours ago, she had beckoned a gaunt figure to
her side, and insisted upon sharing with him her feast, goaded by his
suffering air to put forth little womanly wiles, which he should be
unable to refuse. Involuntarily she turned her head to glance along the
deck. It was incredible that he should not be there! The tears rose
slowly in her eyes.

"I say, I've made a discovery! This motley grey stuff is a mass of
lilies! I've put three pieces together, and there it is as plain as a
pikestaff--a lily comple