ll. I was sorry to hear you had a headache to-day. I hope
you are better."

"Thanks, yes; much better." They all sat down, and it was over.

The conversation was at first very disjointed, and was inclined to turn
on small jokes about the difficulty of dining at an angle of forty-five
degrees. The weather was certainly much heavier than it had been in the
morning, and the Duke feared they would have a longer passage than they
had expected, but added that they would be better able to judge
to-morrow at twelve. Claudius and Margaret exchanged a few sentences,
with tolerable tact and indifference; but, for some occult reason, Mr.
Barker undertook to be especially lively and amusing, and after the
dinner was somewhat advanced he launched out into a series of stories
and anecdotes which served very well to pass the time and to attract
notice to himself. As Mr. Barker was generally not very talkative at
table, though frequently epigrammatic, his sudden eloquence was
calculated to engage the attention of the party. Claudius and Margaret
were glad of the rattling talk that delivered them from the burden of
saying anything especial, and they both laughed quite naturally at
Barker's odd wit. They were grateful to him for what he did, and
Claudius entertained some faint hope that he might go on in the same
strain for the rest of the voyage. But Margaret pondered these things.
She saw quickly that Barker had perceived that some embarrassment
existed, and was spending his best strength in trying to make the meal a
particularly gay one. But she could not understand how Barker could have
found out that there was any difficulty. Had Claudius been making
confidences? It would have been very foolish for him to do so, and
besides, Claudius was not the man to make confidences. He was reticent
and cold as a rule, and Barker had more than once confessed to the
Countess that he knew very little of Claudius's previous history,
because the latter "never talked," and would not always answer
questions. So she came to the conclusion that Barker only suspected
something, because the Doctor had not been with her during the day. And
so she laughed, and Claudius laughed, and they were well satisfied to
pay their social obolus in a little well-bred and well-assumed hilarity.

So the dinner progressed, in spite of the rolling and pitching; for
there was a good deal of both, as the sea ran diagonally to the course,
breaking on the starboard quarter. The