n honor of Lady Jane. He had told his mother that
Bessie was going to America, and in her delight at the good news she did
not oppose his going to see her off, and actually handed him a
five-pound note, which he was to give to Bessie with her best wishes for
a pleasant voyage and happiness in the new world.

Thus armed and equipped, Neil waited until a whiz and a shriek outside
told him the train from Chester was in, and, going out, he stood at the
gate when Bessie came through, accompanied by Mrs. Goodnough, who
carried her bag and waterproof, and who courtesied very low to Neil.
Never had the latter seen Bessie look as lovely, as she did to him then
in her simple traveling-dress of black, which brought out so clearly the
dazzling purity of her complexion, and seemed to intensify the deep blue
of her large, sad eyes.

"Oh, Bessie!" he exclaimed, taking her hand and putting it under his
arm, "how can I let you go? Where is Mrs. Goodnough? and who is this
woman bobbing up and down and staring so at me?"

Neil had a great contempt for people like Mrs. Goodnough, and when
Bessie said to him, in a low tone, "It is my _compagnon du voyage_. She
is rough-looking, but kind and good. I wish you would speak to her," he
answered, quickly:

"That woman! You going out with her! Why, she looks like a fish-woman!
She is only fit to be a steerage passenger!"

"She is a steerage passenger, and I am steerage, too," Bessie said, very
quietly, while Neil dropped her hand as if it had burned him.

"Bessie, what do you mean?" he exclaimed, glancing down upon her and
stopping suddenly.

"Let us go inside. Do not make a scene here, please," Bessie answered
him, in a low, firm voice, while her cheek grew a shade paler and
something shone in her eyes which Neil had never seen there before.

"A private parlor, please; a small one will answer," he said to the
clerk at the bureau; and in a few moments he was sitting with Bessie at
his side, asking her to tell him what she meant by saying she was
steerage, too.

"It means," she began, unfalteringly, "that I have no money for a first
class ticket, which costs more than three times as much as steerage.
Many respectable people go out that way, and it is very comfortable. The
Germanic is a new boat, and all the apartments are clean and nice, I am
not ashamed of it. I am ashamed of nothing, except the debt I owe your
mother, and that I had to borrow five pounds of Anthony, who insisted
upon g