something
abnormal in you."

Mrs. Travers got up swiftly.

"One comes across monstrous things. But I assure you that of all the
monsters that wait on what you would call a normal existence the one I
dread most is tediousness. A merciless monster without teeth or claws.
Impotent. Horrible!"

She left the stateroom, vanishing out of it with noiseless resolution.
No power on earth could have kept her in there for another minute. On
deck she found a moonless night with a velvety tepid feeling in the air,
and in the sky a mass of blurred starlight, like the tarnished tinsel of
a worn-out, very old, very tedious firmament. The usual routine of the
yacht had been already resumed, the awnings had been stretched aft, a
solitary round lamp had been hung as usual under the main boom. Out of
the deep gloom behind it d'Alcacer, a long, loose figure, lounged in the
dim light across the deck. D'Alcacer had got promptly in touch with
the store of cigarettes he owed to the Governor General's generosity. A
large, pulsating spark glowed, illuminating redly the design of his
lips under the fine dark moustache, the tip of his nose, his lean chin.
D'Alcacer reproached himself for an unwonted light-heartedness which
had somehow taken possession of him. He had not experienced that sort of
feeling for years. Reprehensible as it was he did not want anything to
disturb it. But as he could not run away openly from Mrs. Travers he
advanced to meet her.

"I do hope you have nothing to tell me," he said with whimsical
earnestness.

"I? No! Have you?"

He assured her he had not, and proffered a request. "Don't let us tell
each other anything, Mrs. Travers. Don't let us think of anything. I
believe it will be the best way to get over the evening." There was real
anxiety in his jesting tone.

"Very well," Mrs. Travers assented, seriously. "But in that case we had
better not remain together." She asked, then, d'Alcacer to go below and
sit with Mr. Travers who didn't like to be left alone. "Though he, too,
doesn't seem to want to be told anything," she added, parenthetically,
and went on: "But I must ask you something else, Mr. d'Alcacer. I
propose to sit down in this chair and go to sleep--if I can. Will you
promise to call me about five o'clock? I prefer not to speak to any one
on deck, and, moreover, I can trust you."

He bowed in silence and went away slowly. Mrs. Travers, turning her
head, perceived a steady light at the brig's yard-arm, v