."

"Your conclusions are rather entertaining. I am a Catholic myself, and
my own reading has brought opinions that are quite different."

She spoke calmly, but he detected a less friendly tone. In a joking,
incredulous manner he replied, "Well, then, I am a Catholic, too."

"I am serious. My faith to me is a sacred thing. It has brought me a
more tranquil spirit, a deeper knowledge, and a fuller conception of
what I owe to others--and to myself."

She was very much in earnest.

"Then I beg your pardon," he said, "for speaking as I did."

She tried to smile. "It is more my fault than yours. Religious
discussions never do any good."

Then she arose from her chair, and he knew from the exceeding dignity of
her manner that his offence was serious. But this dignity met with cruel
reverses. As she stood up, their side of the steamer was just starting
on a downward lurch,--one of those long, deep, quivering plunges,
apparently for the bottom of the sea, slow at first, but gaining in
rapidity. And Elinor Marshall, instead of turning away with frigid
ceremony, as she intended, first stood irresolute, as if taken
unawares,--yet suspecting danger,--then tiptoed forward and rushed
impetuously into the gentleman's arms. These arms were forced to
encircle the sudden arrival, otherwise both man and woman would have
tumbled to the deck. Then, she pushed him hard against the rail. But
even that was not the end. For there she held him, to her shame,
pressing against him with the whole weight of her body. And this lasted,
it seemed to her, an hour--a year--a lifetime of mortification and of
helpless rage; the wind all the time screaming louder and louder with a
brutish glee.

Her choking exclamations of chagrin were close to his ears, and he felt
her hair against his face. But he was powerless to aid in her struggles
to regain the lost equilibrium. However good his wishes, he could do
nothing but stand as a cushion--poorly upholstered at that--between
herself and the rail.

Finally, at the end of time, when the deck came up again, she backed
away with flaming cheeks. Pats apologized; so did she. He wished to
assist her to the cabin stairs, but the offer was ignored, and she left
him.

[Illustration]

IV

NORTHWARD

Not since her change of faith--never in fact--had Elinor Marshall
listened to such open abuse of a sacred institution. And the memory of
it kept her wide awake during a portion of the night.

Althou