pocket and got up. He asked
her if her day, travelling up to town and then doing some shopping, had
tired her. She shook her head. Then he wanted to know in a
half-jocular way how she felt about going away, and for a long voyage
this time.

"Does it matter how I feel?" she asked in a tone that cast a gloom over
his face. He answered with repressed violence which she did not expect:

"No, it does not matter, because I cannot go without you. I've told
you... You know it. You don't think I could."

"I assure you I haven't the slightest wish to evade my obligations," she
said steadily. "Even if I could. Even if I dared, even if I had to die
for it!"

He looked thunderstruck. They stood facing each other at the end of the
saloon. Anthony stuttered. "Oh no. You won't die. You don't mean it.
You have taken kindly to the sea."

She laughed, but she felt angry.

"No, I don't mean it. I tell you I don't mean to evade my obligations.
I shall live on ... feeling a little crushed, nevertheless."

"Crushed!" he repeated. "What's crushing you?"

"Your magnanimity," she said sharply. But her voice was softened after
a time. "Yet I don't know. There is a perfection in it--do you
understand me, Roderick?--which makes it almost possible to bear."

He sighed, looked away, and remarked that it was time to put out the
lamp in the saloon. The permission was only till ten o'clock.

"But you needn't mind that so much in your cabin. Just see that the
curtains of the ports are drawn close and that's all. The steward might
have forgotten to do it. He lighted your reading lamp in there before
he went ashore for a last evening with his wife. I don't know if it was
wise to get rid of Mrs Brown. You will have to look after yourself,
Flora."

He was quite anxious; but Flora as a matter of fact congratulated
herself on the absence of Mrs Brown. No sooner had she closed the door
of her state-room than she murmured fervently, "Yes! Thank goodness,
she is gone." There would be no gentle knock, followed by her
appearance with her equivocal stare and the intolerable: "Can I do
anything for you, ma'am?" which poor Flora had learned to fear and hate
more than any voice or any words on board that ship--her only refuge
from the world which had no use for her for her imperfections and for
her troubles.

Mrs Brown had been very much vexed at her dismissal. The Browns were a
childless couple and the arrangement had suited