ravely.

"You are very kind indeed," she said. "I have never crossed before, and
I am quite sure that if you have the time to spare, you can be ever so
useful to me."

He smiled reassuringly.

"That's settled then," he said. "I can assure you that I feel very much
more interested in the voyage already. By the by, my name is Mildmay."

"And mine," she replied, after a moment's hesitation, "is Virginia
Longworth."

"Virginia," he repeated with a smile. "I think that is one of the most
delightful of your American names."

"You are English, aren't you?" she asked.

He nodded.

"I," he said, "am returning from my first visit to the States. I have
been to stay with a cousin who has a ranch out West. We had ever such a
good time."

She looked at his sunburnt skin, and smiled to herself.

"Did you stay in New York?" she asked.

"Only two days," he answered. "Somehow or other those big places are
rather terrifying. I had no friends there, and I wandered about as
though I were in a wilderness."

"What a pity!" she murmured. "Americans are so hospitable. Surely you
could have found some friends if you had wished to!"

He smiled a little whimsically.

"Yes!" he said, "I dare say I could, but I hadn't the time to spare to
look them up. Now tell me about your visit to England. Where are you
going to stay? In the country or in London?"

"I am not sure," she answered, "but I think in London, at first at any
rate."

"You have relations there, of course?" he asked.

"None," she answered.

"Friends, then?"

She turned her dark eyes upon him. He felt himself suddenly embarrassed.

"I am awfully sorry," he said. "I've no right to ask you all these
questions. The fact is, I was only trying to make sure that I should be
able to see something of you after we had landed."

She smiled.

"I am afraid," she said, "that that will be scarcely possible, but, if
you don't mind, you mustn't ask me any questions about my journey. I
will admit that it is rather a peculiar one, that I have no friends in
England, that I made up my mind to come all of a sudden. My journey has
an object, of course, but I cannot tell you what it is, and you must
not ask me."

"Of course I will not," he answered, "but I shall talk to you again
about this before we land. I mean to say that you must let me give you
my card, and you will know, at any rate, that there is some one in
England to whom you can send if you are in need of a friend."

Sh