Then she turned her face
towards Carlton, and nodded her head at him. "I think," she said,
dryly, "that you have a fair idea of what it means; a rough
working-plan at least--enough to begin on."

"I said that I knew what it meant to others. I am complaining that I
cannot feel it myself."

"That will come in time, no doubt," she said, encouragingly, with the
air of a connoisseur; "and let me tell you," she added, "that it will
be all the better for the woman that you have doubted yourself so long."

"You think so?" said Carlton, eagerly.

Miss Morris laughed at his earnestness, and left him to go below to ask
her aunt to join them, but Mrs. Downs preferred to read in the saloon,
and Miss Morris returned alone. She had taken off her Eton jacket and
pulled on a heavy blue football sweater, and over this a reefer. The
jersey clung to her and showed the lines of her figure, and emphasized
the freedom and grace with which she made every movement. She looked,
as she walked at his side with her hands in the pockets of her coat and
with a flat sailor hat on her head, like a tall, handsome boy; but when
they stopped and stood where the light fell full on her hair and the
exquisite coloring of her skin, Carlton thought her face had never
seemed so delicate or fair as it did then, rising from the collar of
the rough jersey, and contrasted with the hat and coat of a man's
attire. They paced the deck for an hour later, until every one else
had left it, and at midnight were still loath to give up the beautiful
night and the charm of their strange surroundings. There were long
silent places in their talk, during which Carlton tramped beside her
with his head half turned, looking at her and noting with an artist's
eye the free light step, the erect carriage, and the unconscious beauty
of her face. The captain of the steamer joined them after midnight,
and falling into step, pointed out to Miss Morris where great cities
had stood, where others lay buried, and where beyond the hills were the
almost inaccessible monasteries of the Greek Church. The moonlight
turned the banks into shadowy substances, in which the ghosts of former
days seemed to make a part; and spurred by the young girl's interest,
the Italian, to entertain her, called up all the legends of mythology
and the stories of Roman explorers and Turkish conquerors.

"I turn in now," he said, after Miss Morris had left them. "A most
charming young lady. Is it not