ing happens, of course.'

'Well, what's going to happen?'

'That's just what I'm wondering!' And I turned away and went below with
the foolish but innocent satisfaction of thinking that I had mystified
him.

IV

'I don't know what to do, and you must help me,' Mrs. Nettlepoint said
to me that evening, as soon as I went in to see her.

'I'll do what I can--but what's the matter?'

'She has been crying here and going on--she has quite upset me.'

'Crying? She doesn't look like that.'

'Exactly, and that's what startled me. She came in to see me this
afternoon, as she has done before, and we talked about the weather and
the run of the ship and the manners of the stewardess and little
commonplaces like that, and then suddenly, in the midst of it, as she
sat there, _a propos_ of nothing, she burst into tears. I asked her what
ailed her and tried to comfort her, but she didn't explain; she only
said it was nothing, the effect of the sea, of leaving home. I asked her
if it had anything to do with her prospects, with her marriage; whether
she found as that drew near that her heart was not in it; I told her
that she mustn't be nervous, that I could enter into that--in short I
said what I could. All that she replied was that she _was_ nervous, very
nervous, but that it was already over; and then she jumped up and kissed
me and went away. Does she look as if she had been crying?' Mrs.
Nettlepoint asked.

'How can I tell, when she never quits that horrid veil? It's as if she
were ashamed to show her face.'

'She's keeping it for Liverpool. But I don't like such incidents,' said
Mrs. Nettlepoint. 'I shall go upstairs.'

'And is that where you want me to help you?'

'Oh, your arm and that sort of thing, yes. But something more. I feel as
if something were going to happen.'

'That's exactly what I said to Jasper this morning.'

'And what did he say?'

'He only looked innocent, as if he thought I meant a fog or a storm.'

'Heaven forbid--it isn't that! I shall never be good-natured again,'
Mrs. Nettlepoint went on; 'never have a girl put upon me that way. You
always pay for it, there are always tiresome complications. What I am
afraid of is after we get there. She'll throw up her engagement; there
will be dreadful scenes; I shall be mixed up with them and have to look
after her and keep her with me. I shall have to stay there with her till
she can be sent back, or even take her up to London. _Voyez-vous ca?_