not! And now her delighted look
and her reply made him smile with a strange mixture of sadness and
cynicism. And as approaching footsteps heralded further invasion, he put
the child from him hurriedly, and went out. Hailing a tram car, he made
his way up to town to carry out the remainder of his sudden, though not
very extensive, preparations.

Now on the following evening arrived a package of toys, of a splendour
hitherto unparalleled within that dingy suburban semi-detached, and
there was a great banging of gorgeous drums and a tootling of glittering
trumpets, and little Fay was round-eyed with delight in the acquisition
of the wondrous locomotive, ultimately declining to go to sleep save
with one tiny fist shut tight round the chimney thereof. That would
counteract any passing effect that might be inspired by a vacant chair,
thought Laurence Stanninghame, amid the roar of the mail train speeding
through the raw haze of the early morning. Sentiment? feelings? What had
he to do with such? They were luxuries, and as such only for those who
could afford to indulge in them. He could not.

CHAPTER II.

ADAM'S FIRST WIFE.

The R. M. S. _Persian_ was cleaving her southward way through the smooth
translucence of the tropical sea.

It was the middle of the morning. Her passengers, scattered around her
quarter-deck in the coolness of the sheltering awning, were amusing
themselves after their kind; some gregarious and chatting in groups,
others singly, or in pairs, reading. The men were mostly in flannels and
blazers, and deck-shoes; the women affected light array of a cool
nature; and all looked as though it were too much trouble to move or
even to speak, though here and there an individual more enterprising
than his or her fellows would make a spasmodic attempt at a
constitutional, said attempt usually resolving itself into five and a
half feeble turns, up and down the clear part of the deck, to culminate
in abrupt collapse; for it is warm in the tropical seas.

"What a lazy Johnnie you are, Stanninghame! Now, what the deuce are you
thinking about all this time, I wonder?"

He addressed, who had been gazing out upon the sea and sky-line, plunged
in dreamy thought, did not even turn his head.

"Get into this chair, Holmes, if you want to talk," he said. "A fellow
can't wring his own neck and emit articulate sound at the same time.
What?"

The other, who had come up behind, laughed, and dropped into the empty