ttle more gratitude!

"STELLA."

He folded the letter up and placed it carefully in his coat pocket. Then
he went off into the reading-room in search of John Drayton. Life did
not seem to him so absolutely simple a thing now, as a few hours ago.

BOOK II

CHAPTER I

MY NAME IS MILDMAY

"I am quite sure," Virginia protested, a little shyly, "that you will
want it yourself before long."

The young man laughed pleasantly.

"I am going to run that risk, anyhow," he said. "Please let me wrap it
round you properly, so."

He did not wait for her consent, but after all she was scarcely prepared
to withhold it, for it was a very cold morning, and the young man who
had been sitting on the next chair, with an unused rug by his side, was
wearing a particularly heavy fur coat.

"I think," he said, "that it is quite plucky of you to stay up on deck a
morning like this. I suppose your people are all below?"

She shook her head.

"My people," she said, "are a very long way away."

"Your maid, then," he suggested. "Useless creatures maids, at a time
like this. They are nearly always seasick, especially the first
day out."

Again she shook her head.

"I am travelling quite alone," she said.

He looked at her in astonishment.

"Alone!" he repeated. "Why, you seem to me much too young. Forgive me,
please," he added, apologetically, "I did not mean to be impertinent. I
suppose you are an American?"

"I am," she admitted.

"Ah! that explains everything," he remarked with a little gesture of
relief. "You belong, then, to the most wonderful race on earth, to the
only race who have dared to cross swords with Mrs. Grundy and disarm
her."

"On the contrary," she declared, "Mrs. Grundy of New York is quite as
formidable as Mrs. Grundy of London, only we don't invoke her quite so
often. Still, I will admit that, strictly speaking, I ought not to be
travelling alone. The circumstances are very exceptional."

"I hope," he said earnestly, "that you will give me the opportunity of
looking after you some of the time. I am quite alone, too, and I know no
one on board."

She let her eyes rest for a moment or two upon his face. He was very
fair, young, certainly not more than seven or eight and twenty, and
reasonably good-looking; but apart from these things, he had eyes which
she liked, a voice which was indubitable, and manners which left no
possible room for doubt as to his status. She bowed her head alittle
g