hy conversation, because when we were saying "good-night"--hastily
under one of the big palms on the terrace--oh! if he could have seen
us--she told me with her two dear arms round my neck that she only
loved me, and I was not to look so _jealous_ another time at a
dinner-party, but talk to my partner whether she had a beard and
moustache or not. Just as if I _could_ look jealous and of _such_ a
man!

And so we left Aquazilia behind with its sunshine and lavish
hospitality, and took ship again--the dear old _Oceana_--for our own
foggy island, which I did not much relish returning to in February.

But Dolores was with me and she made sunshine everywhere.

We had been a fortnight on our return voyage, when an incident occurred
which filled me with surprise and concern.

It was one of those grey days at sea when the prospect of the mingled
ocean and sky is not very attractive.

St. Nivel was in the smoking-room; Dolores and Ethel were in the
state-room of the latter, holding one of those long important feminine
conferences--most delightful, I understood, to themselves--in which
dress was the _piece de resistance_, with perhaps a little gossip about
Ethel's conquests in Aquazilia; they were legion! Mrs. Darbyshire was
asleep in her state-room, and as for the dear old man, Don Juan, whom I
looked upon now as my future father-in-law, he was studying assiduously
a book he had picked up in the ship's library, _Reptiles of England,
Scotland, and Wales_.

Simple soul! He might just as well have studied the snakes of Ireland
for all he would see of them in England at that time of the year,
unless he went to the Zoo, and then I understand he would not see much.

Our party being thus disposed of, I was sitting alone in a sheltered
part of the promenade deck--for there was a bit of a wind--rather
depressed at the dreary grey prospect I was contemplating. I was
absolutely alone.

Perhaps I had been sitting thus half an hour, wrapped up in a Burberry,
when I heard a soft footstep approaching, and my man Brooks stood
before me. I noticed that he too looked depressed, and I put his
expression down too to the effect of the weather. He stood there for a
moment in silence, then preferred a request.

"May I speak to you for a few minutes, sir?" he asked.

I straightened myself up in my deck chair, and took a good look at him;
he certainly appeared very solemn, as if he had got something on his
mind.

"Certainly, Brooks,"