usual morose manner he was about to pass without speaking on his
way to his state-room, when his eyes fell on Alma sitting beside me.
Then he stopped and looked at us, and, stepping up, he said, in a tone I
had never heard from him before:

"Mary, my dear, will you not present me to your friend?"

I hesitated, and then with a quivering of the lips I did so. But
something told me as I introduced my husband to Alma, and Alma to my
husband, and they stood looking into each other's eyes and holding each
other's hands (for Alma had risen and I was sitting between them), that
this was the most momentous incident of my life thus far--that for good
or ill my hour had struck and I could almost hear the bell.

FORTY-FIFTH CHAPTER

From that hour forward my husband was a changed man. His manner to me,
so brusque before, became courteous, kind, almost affectionate. Every
morning he would knock at the door of my state-room to ask if I had
slept well, or if the movement of the steamer had disturbed me.

His manner to Alma was charming. He was up before breakfast every day,
promenading the deck with her in the fresh salt air. I would slide back
my window and hear their laughter as they passed, above the throb of the
engines and the wash of the sea. Sometimes they would look in upon me
and joke, and Alma would say:

"And how's Margaret Mary this morning?"

Our seats in the saloon had been changed. Now we sat with Alma at the
Captain's table, and though I sorely missed the doctor's racy talk about
Martin Conrad I was charmed by Alma's bright wit and the fund of her
personal anecdotes. She seemed to know nearly everybody. My husband knew
everybody also, and their conversation never flagged.

Something of the wonderful and worshipful feeling I had had for Alma at
the Sacred Heart came back to me, and as for my husband it seemed to me
that I was seeing him for the first time.

He persuaded the Captain to give a dance on our last night at sea, so
the awnings were spread, the electric lights were turned on, and the
deck of the ship became a scene of enchantment.

My husband and Alma led off. He danced beautifully and she was dressed
to perfection. Not being a dancer myself I stood with the Captain in the
darkness outside, looking in on them in the bright and dazzling circle,
while the moon-rays were sweeping the waters like a silver fan and the
little waves were beating the ship's side with friendly pats.

I was almost ha