ashed a warning glance at the other man
that sufficed. Watts retired, muttering sarcasms under his breath.

Iris revived, to find Philip supporting her with a degree of skill that
was remarkable in one who had enjoyed so little experience in those
matters. She heard his voice, coming, as it seemed, rapidly nearer,
urging her to sip something very fiery and spirituous. Instantly she
protested.

"What are you giving me?" she sobbed. "What has happened?"

Then the whole of her world opened up before her. Her hands flew to
her throat, her hair. She flushed into vivid life as the marble
Galatea incardinated under Pygmalion's kiss.

"Did I faint?" she asked confusedly.

"Yes, but you are all right now. You did not fall. Captain Coke
caught you and handed you over to me. I wish you would drink the
remainder of this brandy, and rest for a little while."

Iris pushed away the glass and sat up.

"You carried me?" she said.

"Well, I couldn't do anything else."

"I suppose you don't realize what it means to a woman to feel that she
has been out of her senses under such conditions?"

"No, but in your case it only meant that you sighed deeply a few times
and tried to bite my fingers when I wished to open your mouth."

"What for? Why did you want to open my mouth?"

"To give you a drink--you needed a stimulant."

"Oh!"

By this time a few dexterous twists and turns had restrained those
wandering tresses within bounds. She held a hair-pin between her lips,
and a woman can always say exactly what she means when a hairpin
prevents discursiveness.

"I am all right now," she announced. "Will you please leave me, and
tell the steward to bring me a cup of tea? If there is a cabin at
liberty, he might put that portmanteau in it which I brought on board
at Liverpool."

Hozier fulfilled her requests, and rejoined Coke on the bridge.

"Miss Yorke is quite well again, sir," he reported. "She wants a
cabin--to change her clothes, I imagine. That bag you saw----"

"Pretty foxy, wasn't it?" broke in Coke, with a glee that was puzzling
to his hearer.

"The whole affair seems to have been carefully planned," agreed Philip.
"But, as I was saying, she asked for the use of a cabin, so I told the
steward to give her mine until we put into Queenstown."

Coke, who had lighted another black and stumpy cigar, removed it in
order to speak with due emphasis.

"Put into h--l!" he said.

"But surely you will not take t