ou want to forget what you've
said, and so do I. We must talk about something else. What were you
saying about a dance?"

"No, no, not a dance," he replied, resigning himself to his fate. "But
once," lowering his voice, "not long ago either, when I was in town,
I--I'm sure you won't believe it-- I went to a theatre." This last
triumphantly.

"Oh, you sad dog!" she cried. "You didn't!"

He nodded his head affirmatively.

"And what was the piece?"

"'The Sign of the Cross.'"

"What, that gruesome show, where every one's slaughtered or chewed up by
lions! You ought to have gone to the Empire."

"It wasn't far from Leicester Square," he said deprecatingly.

"Not near enough to be very wicked," she retorted. "But, say, I'll tell
you something if you'll promise never, never to reveal it."

"The word of a bishop--" he began.

"Oh, nonsense! You're not a bishop at present, you're just Joe. Well,
here it is: I'm an actress!"

"You--are--an--actress!"

"Fact! I'm quite harmless. If you keep six feet from me there's not the
slightest danger of contamination."

Then, seeing his look of astonished bewilderment, she burst into a peal
of ringing laughter, crying:

"Why, to look at you, one would think I'd told you that I was a Gorgon!"

"No, no," he said, stammering. "I--I'm delighted. I always really wanted
to meet an actress--but--er--I hardly know what to say--"

"Don't say anything. Just be your dear unsophisticated self, or you'll
be a bore. Cecil didn't dare tell you who I was, for fear you'd be
shocked. Come on, let's go up on deck. It's close down here."

"It is," admitted his Lordship, whose temperature had risen with his
consumption of champagne, and added:

"We should be well out by this time, for we seem to have been going at
great speed."

"Isn't it glorious!" she cried. "I wonder what they're doing at
Blanford. I guess your telegram was an eye-opener."

"Bless my soul!" exclaimed the Bishop, fishing a form out of his pocket.
"I forgot to send it."

"What, do you mean to say they don't know what's become of us?"

"I never said a word."

"My hat!" she cried. "Won't you get a wigging to-night?"

Then, seeing his evident discomfiture, she added:

"Never mind, I'll take it with you; and if she turns nasty we'll put a
flea in her ear about those mud-baths. Come, let's have our fun,
anyway." And she put her hand on the cabin door.

"Why, it's stuck!" she exclaimed. "I can't open it."

The Bis