ement were devoted to the trade. It was a long, narrow
room, lighted by one window at the end, and almost filled by the
table. Morgan found himself between Alice and Mark, whilst Mary sat
opposite him. Both the girls were young, Mary about twenty, whilst
Alice did not seem more than seventeen. In appearance they struck him
as inferior imitations of their sister. They were much shorter and far
less well-proportioned than Cleo, their red hair was coarser than
hers, and their features were duller. Their voices, too, were
reminiscent of hers. Altogether, though it was abundantly evident that
they were Cleo's sisters, they were perfectly unarrestive. Nature had
made a success of Cleo, but had egregiously failed to repeat the
performance.

The one servant of the house waited at table, prim, sedate, formal. A
corresponding air of restraint seemed to prevail during the whole
meal. It was not till afterwards that he realised that they were
somewhat in awe of him as being obviously a "fine gentleman," and that
they were feeling they had to live up to him. Cleo showed no
inclination to speak, and the other women would not venture to begin.
Mr. Kettering, on whom lay the onus of entertaining, at length strove
to face his responsibilities, and, addressing himself to Morgan,
discussed the comparative fineness of the weather at London and Dover.
Morgan, in return, asked questions about the town and the harbour and
the boats, managing to keep up some sort of a conversation with him.
Eventually the situation began to depress him, so terribly stiff were
they all in their attempt to be genteel. Besides, his appetite was of
the poorest, though he was somewhat astonished to find the fare so
plentiful. Mrs. Kettering kept pressing him to eat more and more, and
apparently found it hard to understand that his refusals were final.
"Are you sure?" she asked him each time; and once she plucked up
courage to assure him he must not stand on ceremony with them, and
that he need not hesitate to eat his fill. Morgan thought it
extraordinary she should so persistently refuse to believe in the
sincerity of his small consumption of food, but, attributing her
solicitude to sheer good-nature, he was sorry to cause her such
evident dissatisfaction.

He was glad when the meal was over, for he was beginning to feel
stifled. The family did not disperse, coffee now being served, of so
curious a flavour that Morgan could not get further than the first
sip.