care of le p'tit
Edouard while I give the captain a trot round. Don't look cross,
there's a darling, though you _do_ remind me, when you open your eyes
that way, of a delightful little American schoolma'am I met in Lima.
She had drifted that far on her holidays, and I believe she was
horrified with me."

"Perhaps she thought you were really the dreadful person you made
yourself out to be. Now, Isobel, that does not matter a bit in
Valparaiso, where you are known, but in Paris and London--"

"Where I mean to be equally well known, it is a passport to smart
society to be _un peu risque_. Steward! Give my compliments to
Captain Courtenay, and say that Miss Maxwell and Miss Baring hope he
will favor them with his company to tea."

Elsie's bright, eager face flushed slightly. She leaned forward, with
a certain squaring of the shoulders, being a determined young person in
some respects.

"For once, I shall let you off," she said in a low voice. "So I give
you fair warning, Isobel, I must not be included in impromptu
invitations of that kind. Next time I shall correct your statement
most emphatically."

"Good gracious! I only meant to be polite. Tut, tut! as dad says when
he can't swear before ladies, I shan't make the running for you any
more."

Elsie drummed an impatient foot on the deck. There was a little pause.
Isobel closed her eyes lazily, but she opened them again when she heard
her friend say:

"I am sorry if I seem crotchety, dear. Indeed, it is no pretense on my
part. You cannot imagine how that man Ventana persecuted me. The mere
suggestion of any one's paying me compliments and trying to be
fascinating is so repellent that I cringe at the thought. And even our
sailor-like captain will think it necessary to play the society clown,
I suppose, seeing that we are young and passably good-looking."

Isobel Baring raised her head from the cushions.

"Ventana was a determined wooer, then? What did he do?" she asked.

"He--he pestered me with his attentions. Oh, I should have liked to
flog him with a whip!"

"He was always that sort of person--too serious," and the head dropped
again.

The steward returned. He was a half-caste; his English was to the
point.

"De captin say he busy, he no come," was his message.

Elsie's display of irritation vanished in a merry laugh. Isobel
bounced up from the depths of the chair; her dark eyes blazed
wrathfully.

"Tell him--" she began.

Then she