n an
exquisite echo of light. Marian Holbury, in her simplicity of white
skirt and white blouse looked as young as a school girl and, Stuart
thought, more beautiful than he had ever seen her. They sat together on
the after-deck which, as it chanced, they held in monopoly and the woman
said musingly:

"To-morrow we part company, don't we?"

"I'm afraid so," he answered. "My ticket reads to Honolulu."

"I suppose I should thank you," she continued in the same pensiveness of
manner. "I guess your unbroken reserve was meant for considerateness."

"Under the circumstances," he replied, a shade piqued by her tone,
"anything else might have been embarrassing--for you."

With eyes traveling seaward she spoke again and there was a ghost of
quiet irony in her voice.

"That seems to be a thing a man's chivalry never leaves to a woman's own
judgment; the determination of what she may find embarrassing."

"At least a man doesn't want to force the dilemma on her." Possibly he
did not succeed in saying it entirely without stiffness.

"If I'd been afraid of your doing that," she reminded him, "I might have
changed my sailing date."

"I was just a little surprised that you didn't," he admitted.

A strolling couple passed and Marian watched them turn out of sight
before she spoke again.

"As a matter of fact, I did change it. I left the friends with whom I'd
been traveling and took this earlier steamer home." She caught the
expression of surprise in his face, but before he could put it into
words she heightened it to amazement with the calm announcement: "I did
that because Lieutenant Hancock told me that you were sailing by it."

"But I--I don't understand!"

"No. You wouldn't."

"I'm dense, I suppose," he acknowledged, "but I should have fancied the
only result of that would be unpleasant gossip."

"Yes, Stuart, you _are_ dense," she interrupted, and into her eyes
leaped an insurgent flame of scorn. "Why should I care what gossips
thought? Their verdict was rendered long since. I had a reason more
important to myself than their opinions."

"Will you tell me what it was? If my attitude was silly, Marian, at
least it was sincere."

"I was wondering whether I would tell you or not, Stuart. Most women
would not; but I'm reported to be startlingly--perhaps shockingly
candid--so perhaps I will."

Formerly he had thought her clever with a play of wit which made for
fascination, but he had believed her processes of thoug