heard some one say. This gave
him a practical, successful air, as of a young man who would come best
out of any predicament. I expected to feel my companion's hand loosen
itself on my arm, as indication that now she must go to him, and was
almost surprised she did not drop me. We stopped as we met and Jasper
bade us a friendly good-morning. Of course the remark was not slow to be
made that we had another lovely day, which led him to exclaim, in the
manner of one to whom criticism came easily, 'Yes, but with this sort of
thing consider what one of the others would do!'

'One of the other ships?'

'We should be there now, or at any rate to-morrow.'

'Well then, I'm glad it isn't one of the others,' I said, smiling at the
young lady on my arm. My remark offered her a chance to say something
appreciative and gave him one even more; but neither Jasper nor Grace
Mavis took advantage of the opportunity. What they did do, I perceived,
was to look at each other for an instant; after which Miss Mavis turned
her eyes silently to the sea. She made no movement and uttered no word,
contriving to give me the sense that she had all at once become
perfectly passive, that she somehow declined responsibility. We remained
standing there with Jasper in front of us, and if the touch of her arm
did not suggest that I should give her up, neither did it intimate that
we had better pass on. I had no idea of giving her up, albeit one of the
things that I seemed to discover just then in Jasper's physiognomy was
an imperturbable implication that she was his property. His eye met mine
for a moment, and it was exactly as if he had said to me, 'I know what
you think, but I don't care a rap.' What I really thought was that he
was selfish beyond the limits: that was the substance of my little
revelation. Youth is almost always selfish, just as it is almost always
conceited, and, after all, when it is combined with health and good
parts, good looks and good spirits, it has a right to be, and I easily
forgive it if it be really youth. Still it is a question of degree, and
what stuck out of Jasper Nettlepoint (if one felt that sort of thing)
was that his egotism had a hardness, his love of his own way an avidity.
These elements were jaunty and prosperous, they were accustomed to
triumph. He was fond, very fond, of women; they were necessary to him
and that was in his type; but he was not in the least in love with Grace
Mavis. Among the reflections I qui