s;
among them was the sweetmeat merchant to whom Nan had talked in the
train.

Coxeter found a comfortable place for Nan rather apart from the others,
and sitting down he began to talk to her. The fog-horn, which was
trumpeting more loudly, more insistently than ever, did not, he thought,
interfere with their conversation as much as it might have done.

"We shan't be there till morning," Coxeter heard a man say, "till
morning doth appear, at this rate!"

"I suppose we're all right. There's no _real_ danger in a fog--not in
the Channel; there never has been an accident on the Channel
passage--not an accident of any serious kind."

"Yes, there was--to one of the Dieppe boats--a very bad accident!"

And then several of those present joined in the discussion. The man who
had recalled the Dieppe boat accident could be heard, self-assertive,
pragmatical, his voice raised above the voices around him. "I've been
all over the world in my time, and when I'm caught in a fog at sea I
always get up, dress, and go up on deck, however sleepy I may be."

Coxeter, sitting apart by Nan's side, listened with some amusement. His
rather thin sense of humour was roused by the fact that the people
around him were talking in so absurd a manner. This delay was not
pleasant; it might even mean that he would be a few hours late at the
Treasury, a thing he had never once been after a holiday, for Coxeter
prided himself on his punctuality in the little as well as the great
things of life. But, of course, all traffic in the Channel would be
delayed by this fog, and his absence would be accounted for by the fact.

Sitting there, close to Mrs. Archdale, with no one sufficiently near to
attract her attention, or, what was more likely, to appeal to her for
sympathy, he felt he could well afford to wait till the fog cleared off.
As for the loud, insistent screaming of the siren, that sound which
apparently got on the nerves of most of those present in the deck
saloon, of course it was a disagreeable noise, but then they all knew it
was a necessary precaution, so why make a fuss about it?

Coxeter turned and looked at his companion, and as he looked at her he
felt a little possessive thrill of pride. Mrs. Archdale alone among the
people there seemed content and at ease, indeed she was now smiling,
smiling very brightly and sweetly, and, following the direction of her
eyes, he saw that they rested on a child lying asleep in its mother's
arms....