ouse
uttering faint shrieks. Mr. Filer gave chase at once, in happy ignorance
that his rival had nearly fallen overboard in a hopeless attempt to see
round the corner. Flesh and blood could stand it no longer, and when the
couple emerged and began to walk in a more sober fashion toward the town
an infuriated boatswain followed a little in the rear.

Mr. Filer saw him first and, with a sudden sinking at his heart, dropped
his light banter and began to discourse on more serious subjects. He
attempted to widen the distance between them, but in vain. A second
glance showed him Mr. Walters close behind, with a face like that of two
destroying angels rolled into one. Trembling with fright he quickened
his pace and looked round eagerly for means of escape. His glance fell
on a confectioner's window, and muttering the word "Ice" he dashed in,
followed in a more leisurely fashion by Miss Jelks.

"I was just feeling like an ice," she said, as she took a seat at
a little marble-topped table. She put her hat straight in a mirror
opposite, and removing her gloves prepared for action.

Mr. Filer ate his ice mechanically, quite unaware of its flavour; then
as nothing happened he plucked up courage and began to talk. His voice
shook a little at first, but was gradually getting stronger, when he
broke off suddenly with his spoon in mid-air and gazed in fascinated
horror at a disc of greenish-yellow nose that pressed against the
shop-window. The eyes behind it looked as though they might melt the
glass.

He put his spoon down on the table and tried to think. Miss Jelks
finished her ice and sat smiling at him.

"Could you--could you eat another?" he faltered.

Miss Jelks said that she could try, and remarked, casually, that she had
once eaten thirteen, and had shared the usual superstition concerning
that number ever since.

"Aren't you going to have one, too?" she inquired, when the fresh ice
arrived.

Mr. Filer shook his head, and, trying hard to ignore the face at the
window, said that he was not hungry. He sat trembling with agitation,
and, desirous of postponing the encounter with the boatswain as long as
possible, kept ordering ices for Miss Jelks until that lady, in justice
to herself, declined to eat any more.

"I can't finish this," she said. "You'll have to help me."

She took up a generous spoonful, and in full view of the face at the
window leaned across the table and put it into Mr. Filer's unwilling
mouth. With