speak to the Marches; his talk spread to the young couple
across the table; it visited the mother on the sofa in a remark which
she might ignore without apparent rejection, and without really avoiding
the boy, it glanced off toward the father and daughter, from whom it
fell, to rest with the gentleman at the head of the table.

It was not that the father and daughter had slighted his overture, if it
was so much as that, but that they were tacitly preoccupied, or were
of some philosophy concerning their fellow-breakfasters which did
not suffer them, for the present, at least, to share in the common
friendliness. This is an attitude sometimes produced in people by
a sense of just, or even unjust, superiority; sometimes by serious
trouble; sometimes by transient annoyance. The cause was not so
deep-seated but Mrs. March, before she rose from her place, believed
that she had detected a slant of the young lady's eyes, from under her
lashes, toward the young man; and she leaped to a conclusion concerning
them in a matter where all logical steps are impertinent. She did not
announce her arrival at this point till the young man had overtaken her
before she got out of the saloon, and presented the handkerchief she had
dropped under the table.

He went away with her thanks, and then she said to her husband, "Well,
he's perfectly charming, and I don't wonder she's taken with him; that
kind of cold girl would be, though I'm not sure that she is cold. She's
interesting, and you could see that he thought so, the more he looked
at her; I could see him looking at her from the very first instant; he
couldn't keep his eyes off her; she piqued his curiosity, and made him
wonder about her."

"Now, look here, Isabel! This won't do. I can stand a good deal, but I
sat between you and that young fellow, and you couldn't tell whether he
was looking at that girl or not."

"I could! I could tell by the expression of her face."

"Oh, well! If it's gone as far as that with you, I give it up. When are
you going to have them married?"

"Nonsense! I want you to find out who all those people are. How are you
going to do it?"

"Perhaps the passenger list will say," he suggested.

VIII.

The list did not say of itself, but with the help of the head steward's
diagram it said that the gentleman at the head of the table was Mr. R.
M. Kenby; the father and the daughter were Mr. E. B. Triscoe and Miss
Triscoe; the bridal pair were Mr. and Mr