Three Men and a Maid

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 hand-writing before, but, with the eye of love, he recognized it. It w

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

h holds 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 co

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

the same." Sam m

thinking. You thought that I should need sympathy. You wanted to pet me, to smooth my wounded feeling

did

did

I did

ought you did!" He lo

ght have wished to comfort me. I have been

demanded passionately.

ted at

Poor little thing! Sit dow

y from him, he

shock I have had? I thought

isn'

't w

said it was a

ht you were a p

, 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 ho

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

red the image which I formed of you. I can never think of you again with

do when your piani

or looking ridiculous. Oh, what, what," she cried, "ind

d, stung t

Williams. It w

ow was I

est," said

the awful

t for yo

ered again. Then suddenly, with the nervous quickness of a

ke

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 str

darned sil

ight you have to sa

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

t you und

dashed

at him de

o 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

it of blacking up! You talk as if you expected

hink of you as I

"There's a bit of black

. But she drew it away. H

the end,"

on your ear and pa

the end,"

and ask your steward to g

ghed b

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

N

then, Mis

d Billie sadly.

menti

derstand,

everything pe

pe you won't

y of a shrimp in pain. "Unhappy! I'm not unhappy! Whatever gave you th

nd and rude of

ving picture I saw in

om the Sc

O

on't … Give me my gay bachelor life! My uncle Charlie used to say 'It's better luck to get married than it is

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

and disgusted to hear a high tenor voice raise

faw in shee-

nce be sharrr

, I fee-er t

der-rooping

fee-er the

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

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 for

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

ng sense of injury. "I might have forgiven you th

me into Eustace

story. A miracle, you might almost call it. Makes you believe in Fate a

cursed him, the Subwa

the ord

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

hat as a result of that concer

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

fulness. I know! I've been there. After all … Wilhelmina B

of the kind," sa

ce firmly, "I speak as

rag and a bone an

n the world, and owing

e los

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 a New York sub

mination service in order t

time, but she was. She had grave brown eyes, a wonderful personality, and this elephant gun

shoot you

hat do you m

am bitterly. "The chance of a life-time

art. My heart, if you recollect, was aching at the moment-quite unnecessarily if I had only known-because it was only a couple of days since my e

it a

it a

no! Forget all

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

ked Sam with a flick

tainly

t's

ot for

t's

healed me. Sam, th

e light when y

There are some situations which do not need words. She wen

he made me drink it. She said it was what her father always used in Africa for bu

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. I

ha

ubbard had restored

all r

ace he switched off the light. There was a long silence, broken only by the dist

am

is i

out her, Sam. She was telling me she

nd tossed on

e fell

said Eustace Hignett, at a quarter pa