The Girl on the Boat

r. Sam sat up dizzily. He

's t

note for

ost obliging body of men in the world, all have soft and pleasant voices. A White Star steward, waking you up at six-thirty,

wha

ote,

nner down the passage. Sam looked at the letter with a thrill. He had never seen the handwriting before, but, with the eye of love, he recognised it. It wa

the top deck. I wan

wrong with the letter, but the way Sam looked at it was that, for a first love-letter, it might have been l

olds good when a man has made an exhibition of himself at a ship's concert. A woman's gentle sympathy, that was what Samuel Marlowe wanted more than anything else at the moment. That, he felt, was what the doctor ordered. He scrubbed the burnt cork

shone on the sea, making it look like the silver beach of some distant fairy island. The girl appeared to be wrapped in thoug

s that

es

been a l

ng all that burnt cork off. You've no notion h

shud

on

ou have to wi

se almost hysterically. "I never want to hear the w

et you here. I know what you were thinking. You thought that I should need sympathy. You wanted to pet me, to smooth

did

did

I did

I thought," he said, "that possibly you might have wished to comfo

demanded passionately.

ted at

Poor little thing! Sit down

y from him, he

shock I have had? I thought

isn'

't w

said it was a

ht you were the

, a

a sort of raised summerhouse with a brass thingummy in it, fooled abo

Sam when h

what I w

t my being the

thought

t's

you'r

N

N

O

othed and comforted and she was like a petulant iceberg. Cynically, he recalled some lines of poetry which he had had

in our hou

something, som

ly-umpty

something so

she might treat a man in times of prosperity, could be relied on to rally round

" he said

e a lit

ed the image which I formed of you. I can never think of you again withou

do when your piani

Hubbard came back to her. "I can't forgive a man for looking ridiculous. Oh, wh

d, stung t

Williams. It w

ow was I

est," said

the awful

t for yo

again. Then suddenly, with the nervous quickness of a woman u

t's

barber's shop. It is the only present

I shouldn't know w

she said in a low vo

wha

of our bro

you make that out

ver marry

heavens! Don

can

t," he said encouragingly, t

ook he

I cou

ang it

I'm a very st

very silly

ight you have to sa

u can't marry me and try to load me up wit

t you und

dashed

at him de

shut my eyes to conjure up the picture of you as you dived off the rail that morning. Now-" her voice trembled "-if I shut my eyes now, I

bit of blacking up! You talk as though you expecte

to-night." She looked at him sadly. "There

. But she drew it away. H

the end,"

on your ear and pa

the end,"

and ask your steward to g

ghed b

men-as I do now. Women! What mighty ills have not been done by woman? Who was't betrayed the what's-its-name? A woman! W

N

then, Mis

d Billie sadly.

menti

derstand,

everything pe

pe you won't

shrimp in pain. "Unhappy! Ha! ha! I'm not unhappy! Whatever gave you that id

nd and rude of

ure I saw in New York. It was c

O

me my gay bachelor life! My Uncle Charlie used to say 'It's better luck to get married than it is to be kicked in the h

one benignantly down, mocking him. He had spoken bravely; the most captious critic coul

and disgusted to hear a high tenor voice raised

faw in shee-

nce be sharrr

, I fee-er t

der-rooping

fee-er the g

about, a pleasing sight in the wake of the vessel; that he should be singing was an outrage. Remorse, Sam felt, should have stricken Eustace Hi

d sternly, "so

wan look had disappeared. His eyes were bright. His face wore that beastly self-satisfied smirk which you see in pictures advertising certain makes of fine-mesh underwear. If Eustace Hignett

I was wondering whe

, miserable worm," he went on in a burst of generous indignation, "what have you to say fo

began to sniff the smoke. Then everything seemed to go black-I don't mean you, of course. Y

g sense of injury. "I might have forgiven you the

me into Eustace

you all about

most call it. Makes you believe in Fate and all that kind

him, the Subway, and the city

ap, what is

the mat

t by your manner. Something has happened to disturb and upset you.

, h

over. I take it that after my departure you made the most colossal ass of your

at, as a result of that concert

forward with ou

that could possibly have happened. These are not idle words. As one who has bee

he might have clutched it eagerly, but he drew

roken," he sai

ulness. I know. I've been there. After all ... Wilhelmina B

of the kind," sa

as an expert. I know her and I repeat, sh

orld, and, owing to your idiot

ely. "If you want to hear about the only girl in the world, I

bed," said S

tell you while yo

want to

me seated after some difficulty in a carriage in the New York S

mination service in order t

tion. "I didn't know it at the time, but she was. She had grav

shoot you

hat do you m

am bitterly. "The chance of a lifetime a

mangoes, and what to do when bitten by a Borneo wire-snake. You can imagine how she soothed my aching heart. My heart, if you recollect, was aching at the moment-quite unnecessarily if I had only

it a

it a

no! Forget all

eepest depths, saying.... There are your pyjamas, over in the corner ... saying 'You are mine!' How could I forget her after that? Well, as

ked Sam with a flick

tainly

t's

ot for

t's

healed me. Sam, th

e light when y

h a mixture of some description in a glass. I don't know what it was. It had Worcester Sauce in it. She put it to my lips. She made me drink

es

lm. I was even able to look over the side from time to time and comment on the beauty of the moon on the water.... I have said some mordant things about women since I came on board this boat.

ha

ubbard had restored

all r

oft smile on his face he switched off the light. There was a l

rty a voice came fr

am

is i

out her, Sam. She was telling me she

nd tossed on

e fell

said Eustace Hignett at a quarter p