English by birth; that she had married an Australian
squatter, who had died during the past year or so; that her permanent
home was in England, but that she was just now paying a visit to the
Commonwealth upon some business connected with her late husband's
estates there.

'You have been most kind, Mr. Freydon,' she said, as we stepped from
the gangway to the steamer's deck. 'I was in a dreadful muddle by
myself, and now, thanks to you, I have really enjoyed my afternoon in
Naples. Believe me, I am grateful. And,' she added, with a faint
blush, 'I shall now find even greater interest than before in your
books. Au revoir!'

So she disappeared, by way of the saloon companion, while I took a
turn along the deck to smoke a cigarette. Naturally I had not
mentioned my books or profession, and I thought it an odd chance that
she should know them. She certainly had been a most agreeable
companion, and----

'There's no doubt that life in any other country, no matter where,
does seem to enlarge the sympathies of English people,' I told myself.
'It tends to mitigate the severity of their attitude towards the
narrower conventions. If this had been her first journey out of
England she might have accepted my help in the matter of the cabman,
but would almost certainly have felt called upon to reject my company
from that on. Instead of which-- H'm! Well, upon my word, I have
enjoyed the day far more than I should have done alone. She certainly
is very bright and intelligent.'

And I nodded and smiled to myself, recalling some of her comments upon
certain figures in the marble gallery of the Museo that afternoon.
There was nothing in the least inane or parrot-like about her
conversation. I experienced a more genial and friendly feeling than
had been mine till then toward the whole of my fellow-passengers.

'After all,' I told myself, 'this forming of hasty impressions of
people, from snatches of their talk and mannerisms and so forth, is
both misleading and uncharitable. Here have I been sitting at table
for a week, and, upon my word, I had no idea that any one among her
sex on board had half so much intelligence as she had shown in these
few hours away from the crowd. The crowd--that's it. It's misleading
to observe folk in the mass, and in the confinement of a ship.'

The passengers' quarters on an ocean liner are fully equal to the
residences in a cathedral close as forcing beds of gossip and scandal.
Thus, before we reache