u like," said he, as Madame Piriac and Audrey rustled
off.

There might have been hundreds of sleeping-cabins. And there did, in fact,
appear to be quite a number of them, to say nothing of two bathrooms. They
inspected all of them save one, which was locked. In an awed voice the
parlourmaid said, "That is the owner's cabin." At another door she said, in
a different, disdainful voice, "That only leads to the galley and the
crew's quarters." Audrey wondered what a galley could be, and the mystery
of that name, and the mystery of the two closed doors, merely made the
whole yacht perfect. The sleeping-cabins surpassed all else--they were so
compact, so complex, so utterly complete. No large bedchamber, within
Audrey's knowledge, held so much apparatus, and offered so much comfort and
so much wardrobe room as even the least of these cabins. It was impossible,
to be sure, that in one's amused researches one had not missed a cupboard
ingeniously disguised somewhere. And the multiplicity of mirrors, and the
message of the laconic monosyllable "Hot" on silver taps, and the
discretion of the lighting, all indicated that the architect and creator of
these marvellous microcosms had "understood." The cosy virtue of
littleness, and the entire absurdity of space for the sake of space, were
strikingly proved, and the demonstration amounted, in Audrey's mind, to a
new and delicious discovery.

The largest of the cabins had two berths at right angles to one another,
each a lovely little bed with a running screen of cashmere. Having admired
it once, they returned to it.

"Do you know, my dear," said Madame Piriac in French, "I have an idea. You
will tell me if it is not good.... If we shared this cabin...! In this so
curious machine one feels a satisfaction, somehow, in being very near the
one to the other. The ceiling is so low.... That gives you
sensations--human sensations.... I know not if you experience the same...."

"Oh! Let's!" Audrey exclaimed impulsively in English. "Do let's!"

When the parlourmaid had gone, and before the luggage had come down, Madame
Piriac caught Audrey to her and kissed her fervently on both cheeks, amid
the glinting confusion of polished woods and draperies and silver mountings
and bevelled glass.

"I am so content that you came, my little one!" murmured Madame Piriac.

The next minute the cabin and the corridor outside were full of open trunks
and bags, over which bent the forms of Madame Piriac, A