nges of her last year at school.

"Here is an adventure," he said, shaking hands. "But I can see that
you have taken no harm, and have not even been afraid. For us, it is a
pleasant surprise."

He glanced at her with a smiling approbation, not without a delicate
suggestion of admiration, such as he might well permit himself, and she
might now even consider her due. He was only keeping pace.

"I stayed behind to initiate your maid, who is, of course, unused to
a ship, and the steward speaks but little French. But now they are
arranging your cabin together."

"How delightful!" cried Juliette. "I have never been on a ship before,
you know. And it is all so strange and so nice. All those big men, like
wet ghosts, who said nothing! I think they are more interesting than
women; perhaps it is because they talk less."

"Perhaps it is," admitted Colville, with a sudden gravity, similar to
that with which she had made the suggestion.

"You should hear the Sisters talk--when they are allowed," she said,
confidentially.

"And whisper when they are not. I can imagine it," laughed Colville.
"But now you have left all that behind, and have come out into
the world--of men, one may say. And you have begun at once with an
adventure."

"Yes! And we are going to Bordeaux, papa and I, until his foot is well
again. Of course, I was in despair when I was first told of it, but now
that I see him I am no longer anxious. And your messenger assured me
that it was not serious."

She paused to look round the cabin, to make sure that they were alone.

"How strange he is!" she said to both her hearers, in confidence,
looking from one to the other with a quick, birdlike turn of the head
and bright eyes. "I have never seen any one like him."

"No?" said Dormer Colville, encouragingly.

"He said he was an Englishman; but, of course, he is not. He is French,
and has not the manner of a bourgeois or a sailor. He has the manner of
an aristocrat--one would say a Royalist--like Albert de Chantonnay, only
a thousand times better."

"Yes," said Colville, glancing at Monsieur de Gemosac.

"More interesting, and so quick and amusing. He spoke of a heritage in
France, and yet he said he was an Englishman. I hope he will secure his
heritage."

"Yes," murmured Colville, still looking at Monsieur de Gemosac.

"And then, when we were in the boat," continued Juliette, still in
confidence to them both, "he changed quite suddenly. He was short and
s