" I remarked. "But did she say," I asked, "that _she_
had had?"

"No, and that's one of the things I thought nice in her; for she must
have had. She didn't try to make out that he had spoiled her life. She
has three other sisters and there's very little money at home. She has
tried to make money; she has written little things and painted little
things--and dreadful little things they must have been; too bad to think
of. Her father has had a long illness and has lost his place--he was in
receipt of a salary in connexion with some waterworks--and one of her
sisters has lately become a widow, with children and without means. And
so as in fact she never has married any one else, whatever opportunities
she may have encountered, she appears to have just made up her mind to go
out to Mr. Porterfield as the least of her evils. But it isn't very
amusing."

"Well," I judged after all, "that only makes her doing it the more
honourable. She'll go through with it, whatever it costs, rather than
disappoint him after he has waited so long. It's true," I continued,
"that when a woman acts from a sense of honour--!"

"Well, when she does?" said Mrs. Nettlepoint, for I hung back
perceptibly.

"It's often so extravagant and unnatural a proceeding as to entail heavy
costs on some one."

"You're very impertinent. We all have to pay for each other all the
while and for each other's virtues as well as vices."

"That's precisely why I shall be sorry for Mr. Porterfield when she steps
off the ship with her little bill. I mean with her teeth clenched."

"Her teeth are not in the least clenched. She's quite at her ease
now"--Mrs. Nettlepoint could answer for that.

"Well, we must try and keep her so," I said.

"You must take care that Jasper neglects nothing." I scarce know what
reflexions this innocent pleasantry of mine provoked on the good lady's
part; the upshot of them at all events was to make her say: "Well, I
never asked her to come; I'm very glad of that. It's all their own
doing."

"'Their' own--you mean Jasper's and hers?"

"No indeed. I mean her mother's and Mrs. Allen's; the girl's too of
course. They put themselves on us by main force."

"Oh yes, I can testify to that. Therefore I'm glad too. We should have
missed it, I think."

"How seriously you take it!" Mrs. Nettlepoint amusedly cried.

"Ah wait a few days!"--and I got up to leave her.

CHAPTER III

The _Patagonia_ was slow, but spa