son, perhaps, they began by being
unusually silent. It was Katherine who spoke first.

"Dearest," she commenced very slowly, "I want you to listen to me and
not to speak until I have finished. I have something to say to you,
and I don't quite know how to say it. I don't want you to think that I
am capricious, or that I think only of myself. In this I am thinking
of you, and of your happiness only."

"I can quite believe that," Browne replied, trying to force down the
lump that was rising in his throat. "But I must hear you out before I
can say more. What is it you have to say to me?"

"I want you"--here she paused as if she were fighting for breath--"I
want you to give up any idea of marrying me, and to put me ashore at
the first port at which you call. Will you do this?"

Nearly a minute elapsed before Browne answered. When he did his voice
was curiously husky.

"Katherine," he said, "this is just like you. It is like your noble
nature to try and make my path smoother, when your own is so difficult
that you can scarcely climb it. But you don't, surely, suppose that I
should do what you ask--that I should give you up and allow you to go
out of my life altogether, just because you have been tricked as I have
been?"

She glanced up at him with a face as white as the foam upon which they
looked. What she would have replied I cannot say; but at that moment
MacAndrew, accompanied by Jimmy Foote, appeared on deck. The latter
approached them and asked Browne if he could spare him a few minutes.
Not being averse to any proposal, that would tend to mitigate the
severity of the ordeal he was then passing through, Browne consented.

"What is it you want with me?" he asked, as savagely as if he were
being deliberately wronged. "For Heaven's sake, Jimmy, be easy with
me! You can have no idea what the strain of the last few minutes has
been."

"I know everything, my son," rejoined Jimmy quietly. "Do you think I
haven't been watching you of late? That is exactly what I am here for.
Poor old boy, you've been on the rack a shade too long lately; but I
think I can put that right if you'll only let me. I've great news for
you."

"I don't know what sort of news you can have that will be acceptable to
me," replied Browne lugubriously. "I'm carrying about as much just now
as I can possibly manage. What is it?"

"Do you think you're altogether fit to hear it?" he asked. "And what
about Miss Petrovitch? Can yo