bout by the waves of the open sea. Then Maria
became more and more silent, until quite suddenly, to Susan's alarm, she
rose, said hastily, "You stop here, Miss Susan," and dived down into the
cabin near which they were sitting. What could be the matter? Susan
looked helplessly round; she did not like to follow her, and yet it was
not at all pleasant to be left here alone amongst all these strangers;
she felt frightened and deserted. Next to her sat a tall thin man
reading a book. He was tightly buttoned up to the chin in a threadbare
great-coat greenish with age, and wore leather straps under his boots.
She had noticed this when he came on board, and thought he looked
different somehow from everyone else; now she lifted her eyes, and made
a side-way examination of his face. He was clean shaven except for a
short-pointed beard, and his greyish hair was very closely-cropped. His
eyes she could not see, for they were bent on the pages before him, but
presently raising them his glance fell on her, and he smiled
reassuringly. Susan had never been used to smile at strangers; so,
though she did not remove her gaze, it continued to be a very serious
one, and also rather distressed.

"The Bonne has mal de mer?" he asked, after they had looked at each
other for a minute in silence. Susan did not answer, and, indeed, did
not know what he meant. This was a Frenchman, she thought to herself,
and that was why he looked different to the other people.

"She is vot you call sea-seek," he repeated--"that is a bad thing--but
she will be soon better." It was a comfort to hear this, though Susan
could not imagine how he knew what was the matter with Maria.

"It arrives often," he remarked again, "to those who travel on the sea--
myself, I have also suffered from it."

He looked so very kind as he said this, that Susan was encouraged to
smile at him, and little by little to say a few words. After that they
quickly became friends, and he proved a very amusing companion; for,
putting down his book, he devoted himself to her entirely, and told her
many wonderful facts about the sea, and ships, and the sea-gulls flying
overhead. She listened to these with great attention, bent on storing
them up to tell Maria afterwards, and then became confidential in her
turn. She told him about her home in London, and Freddie's illness, and
the long journey he was going to begin to-morrow, and Monsieur appeared
to take the very deepest intere