great an effort for his nature; the retaining of it, even
more strenuous. Of course the whole thing is entirely a question of
temperament.

A few of the other passengers looked somewhat curiously at the tall lean
man gazing out to sea; but, as he was so obviously oblivious of their
very existence, so entirely absorbed in his contemplation of the ocean,
they left him undisturbed.

It was not till the dressing bugle sounded that he roused himself, and
descended to his cabin. It was a matter for his fervent thanksgiving that
he had found himself the sole occupant of the tiny two-berthed
apartment.

He arrayed himself with scrupulous care. Only the most stringent
exigencies of time and place--though they for a while had been
frequent--had ever caused him to forego the ceremonial of donning dress
clothes for dinner, though no eyes but his own should behold him.
Latterly there had been Riffle and then Josephus to behold, and the
former to marvel. Josephus took it, puppy-like, as a matter of course.

There were not a vast number of passengers on the boat. Of the four
tables in the dining saloon, Antony found only two fully laid, and a
third partially so. His own place was some three seats from the captain's
left. The chair on the captain's right was, as yet, unoccupied. For the
rest, with but one or two exceptions at the other tables, the passengers
had already put in an appearance. The almost entire absence of wind, the
smoothness of the ocean, had given courage even to those the most
susceptible to the sea's malady. It would have required a really vivid
imagination to have perceived any motion in the boat other than the
throbbing of her engines.

Antony slipped into his seat, and a steward placed a plate of clear soup
before him. In the act of taking his first spoonful, he paused, his eyes
arrested by the sight of a woman advancing towards the chair on the
captain's right.

At the first glance, Antony saw that she was a tall woman, dressed in
black unrelieved save for ruffles of soft creamy lace at her throat and
wrists. Presently he took in further details, the dark chestnut of her
hair, the warm ivory of her skin, the curious steady gravity of her
eyes--grey or violet, he was not sure which,--the straight line of her
eyebrows, the delicate chiselling of her nose, and the red-rose of her
mouth. And yet, in spite of seeing the details, they were submerged in
the personality which had first arrested him. Something with