thing to do with them!"

"Aye!"

Henry began to comprehend his father's questions. "Oh, I ... I kissed
one or two of them!" he said.

"Was that all?" Mr. Quinn's voice was so low that Henry had difficulty
in hearing him.

"Yes, father," he answered.

"You know, don't you, that there's other things than kisses? Or do you
not know it?"

Henry nodded his head.

"I'm ... I'm not interferin' with you, Henry. I'm not just askin' for
the sake of askin' ... but ... well, do you know anything about those
... things?"

He moved slightly as he spoke, as if, by moving, he could take the edge
off his question.

"I know about them, father. Something!" Henry said huskily, for his
father's questions embarrassed him strangely.

"You've never ... you've never!..."

"No, father!"

Mr. Quinn turned away and looked over the side of the boat. He seemed to
be watching a piece of orange peel which floated between the wall and
the side of the boat. The first bell of warning to friends of passengers
was sounded, and he turned sharply and looked at his son. "I'll have to
be goin' soon," he said.

"That's only the first bell, father," Henry replied. "There's plenty of
time yet!"

"Aye!" Mr. Quinn glanced about the deck which was now covered by
passengers. "You'll have plenty of company goin' over," he said.

"Yes!"

They were making conversation with difficulty. Mr. Quinn felt nervous
and a little unhappy because Henry was leaving him so soon, and Henry
felt disturbed because of the strange conversation he had just had with
his father. He had a shamed sense of intrusion into privacies.

"It's very interestin' to see a boat goin' out to sea," Mr. Quinn was
saying. "I used to come down here many's a time when I was a young
fellow just to watch the steamers goin' out. Did you ever stan' on top
of a hill an' watch a boat sailin' out to sea?"

"No, I don't remember doing that!"

"It's a fine sight, that! You see her lights shinin' in the dark a long
way off, but you can't see her, except mebbe the foam she makes, an'
begod you near want to cry. That's the way it affects me anyway....
Henry, if you ever get into any bother over the head of a woman, you'll
tell me, won't you, an' I'll stan' by you!" He said this so suddenly,
coming close to Henry as he said it, that Henry was startled. "You'll
not forget," he went on.

"No, father, I won't forget!"

"I've been wantin' to say that to you for a good while, but it's a hard
thi