one place for me was on board "Waterspin," and before the barrier
had done more than show signs of yielding I crawled over, slinking into
my cabin.

"Well, well!" I said to myself. "Well, well!" I said again, with my head
between my hands as I sat on my lonely bunk. There seemed nothing else
to say.

I stayed for a long time, until the press had broken, and we were going
on at full speed once more. Then I went to a window of the kitchen,
which Phyllis so much admired, and looked out. I could see the deck of
"Mascotte," and Brederode and Nell, who were still alone there together.

"Well, well!" I repeated idiotically; "it's I who did that. If it hadn't
been for me--but I don't know. I suppose it was bound to happen, anyway.
I wonder?"

Then I returned to my cabin and flitted about restlessly. Soon I became
conscious that I was humming an air. It was not, in itself, a sad air;
but there was a certain sadness as well as appropriateness in its
meaning for me----

_Giving agreeable girls away--
One for you, and one for you, but never (how does it go?),
never one for me!_

We were stopping. We had come to Middelburg. I looked out again. Nell
was on deck alone. Doubtless Alb had at last gone below to the
motor-room, and was exchanging the blue overalls for something more
decorous. Would he, even for the sake of conventionality, have left her
at such a moment unless everything were settled?

"Mascotte" and "Waterspin" were at rest, and I could avail myself of
Alb's absence to find out if I liked. I was not at all sure that I did
like. Nevertheless, something urged me to go, and before I quite knew
how or why I had come there, I stood beside the pretty white figure.
Nell looked up at me, radiant with emotion.

"Oh, Mr. Starr, you were just the one I wanted to see," she exclaimed.
"I was _willing_ you to come."

"Well, I came," I said, smiling. "I'm glad you want me."

"I want to ask you what to do. I sent him away. You know, we must stop
on board till Lady MacNairne's better, so--there's no hurry, and--he had
to change. At first he _wouldn't_ go without an answer. But I told him I
_must_ have ten minutes to make up my mind. He's explained everything.
He was never to blame. It was all Freule Menela's fault--and mine.
Please say what you think. You know him so well; you're old friends.
There's no one else I can talk to, and--I feel somehow--I have for a
long time--almost as if you were a kind of--ado