e left the letter lying about on her
dressing-table, after the manner of modern young women, it was none the
less the dearest possession of her life until the next one arrived.

Toffy sat up in his bunk with a horribly bad headache, and wrote a long
letter to Mrs. Avory, which he posted at Vigo; and he wrote another
letter, not nearly so long, but one which cost him much more time to
compose, and addressed it to Miss Kitty Sherard. And this he carefully
tore into little pieces one night when the decks were dark and there was
no moon overhead; and he watched the small white bits of paper, as they
floated away into the black depths of the water, and then he walked up
and down the deck until the small hours of the morning, when Peter--one
of whose worst qualities was that he always fussed over people he cared
about--appeared in pyjamas and overcoat, and asked him sternly if he was
trying to get another chill.

At Lisbon the intelligent Scot suggested to the two travellers that they
should join him in a trip ashore. The three had made friends in the
smoking-room, and Peter hailed Mr. Dunbar as a fellow-countryman, and
enjoyed his rugged accent and his amazing penetration. He abounded in
useful information about the country to which they were going, gave
statistics on all points, and teemed with information. He was an ardent
and indefatigable sightseer, and never visited a building without seeming
to investigate it. The most complicated currency of a foreign country
never disturbed him for an instant, and he would make little sums with
extraordinary rapidity on the edge of any bill that was given to him.
The difference of price, as stated in Spanish coinage, between a bottle
of claret and a whisky-and-soda, might have puzzled some people; but
Dunbar worked it out to a fraction in a second of time, and without a
moment's hesitation laid his own share of the expense on the
luncheon-table of the Braganza hotel. He spoke Spanish better than he
spoke English, though he thought he had got rid of his Scottish accent;
but he still said 'I mind' for 'I remember,' and differentiated in the
matter of pronouncing 'court' and 'caught.'

At St. Vincent Peter wrote home again, and felt a certain sense of
insecurity at leaving letters on the rocky island. It was four o'clock
in the morning when the ship got into port, and the sun was rising over
the hills eastward, while to the west the bare, rugged, mountainous land
was a solemn,