then for a moment she paused.

"All your life, Jean," she whispered, "you will be glad of what you
have done to-night, because it was so brave a thing to do; and it will
make you a better man, and I am no more afraid, as once I was, that you
will forget that it is the _bon Dieu_, and not yourself, who has made
you great. And after a little while you will be glad too that I--that
I have gone."

She was gone! He stood there in a numbed way. She was gone! He could
not seem to realise that. Go back! Go back--and leave Marie-Louise!
Only that one thing was clear out of his dazed and staggered
consciousness. He would not go back! He would never go back!
To-morrow, ay and the to-morrows all through life, Marie-Louise would
find him there!

He raised his head suddenly, and turned and looked behind him. High
above on that upper deck there seemed a strange confusion--and on the
moment, from the bridge shrilled out an officer's whistle. Then, from
deep down within the ship, the engine-room bell sounded in a muffled
clang; and an instant later dark forms were scurrying around one of the
lifeboats; and now there were shouts, the creak of tackle--and the
vibration of the ship was gone.

He moved back along the deck to stand close below the rail of the main
deck where, oblivious to the damp and wet now, the passengers in
low-necked gowns, in evening dress, the dance forgotten, were crowding,
jostling and pushing each other in mad excitement.

A dozen voices spoke at once.

"Somebody has fallen overboard! ... Who is it? ... Who is it? ... How
did it happen? ... Who is it? ... Who is it?..."

Jean's brows gathered in perplexed, strained furrows. Myrna and
Monsieur Bliss had made their discovery of course, that was evident;
but to stop the ship, to lower a boat when it was obviously absurd,
when they had every reason to assume that his body by then must be
miles astern! What was the meaning of that?

The ship was silent, still, motionless now, save for the tumult of the
excited passengers; the lifeboat dropped into the water and rowed
away--and then a queer smile flickered on Jean's lips. Ah, yes! It
was Myrna--mistress of every situation! Her fiance as a _suicide_ was
impossible; an _accident_ of course was quite another thing--that was
only deplorable! She and her father had influence enough with the
captain, in whom no doubt they had confided what they believed to be
the truth, to induce him to carry out, for