She said nothing to this and I made her walk again. For some minutes she failed to speak; then, rather abruptly, she began: "I"ve seen you talking to that lady who sits at our table--the one who has so many children."
"Mrs. Peck? Oh yes, one has inevitably talked with Mrs. Peck."
"Do you know her very well?"
"Only as one knows people at sea. An acquaintance makes itself. It doesn"t mean very much."
"She doesn"t speak to me--she might if she wanted."
"That"s just what she says of you--that you might speak to her."
"Oh if she"s waiting for that!" said my companion with a laugh. Then she added: "She lives in our street, nearly opposite."
"Precisely. That"s the reason why she thinks you coy or haughty. She has seen you so often and seems to know so much about you."
"What does she know about me?"
"Ah you must ask her--I can"t tell you!"
"I don"t care what she knows," said my young lady. After a moment she went on: "She must have seen I ain"t very sociable." And then, "What are you laughing at?" she asked.
"Well"--my amus.e.m.e.nt was difficult to explain--"you"re not very sociable, and yet somehow you are. Mrs. Peck is, at any rate, and thought that ought to make it easy for you to enter into conversation with her."
"Oh I don"t care for her conversation--I know what it amounts to." I made no reply--I scarcely knew what reply to make--and the girl went on: "I know what she thinks and I know what she says." Still I was silent, but the next moment I saw my discretion had been wasted, for Miss Mavis put to me straight: "Does she make out that she knows Mr. Porterfield?"
"No, she only claims she knows a lady who knows him."
"Yes, that"s it--Mrs. Jeremie. Mrs. Jeremie"s an idiot!" I wasn"t in a position to controvert this, and presently my young lady said she would sit down. I left her in her chair--I saw that she preferred it--and wandered to a distance. A few minutes later I met Jasper again, and he stopped of his own accord to say: "We shall be in about six in the evening of our eleventh day--they promise it."
"If nothing happens, of course."
"Well, what"s going to happen?"
"That"s just what I"m wondering!" And I turned away and went below with the foolish but innocent satisfaction of thinking I had mystified him.
CHAPTER IV
"I don"t know what to do, and you must help me," Mrs. Nettlepoint said to me, that evening, as soon as I looked in.
"I"ll do what I can--but what"s the matter?"
"She has been crying here and going on--she has quite upset me."
"Crying? She doesn"t look like that."
"Exactly, and that"s what startled me. She came in to see me this afternoon, as she has done before, and we talked of the weather and the run of the ship and the manners of the stewardess and other such trifles, and then suddenly, in the midst of it, as she sat there, on no visible pretext, she burst into tears. I asked her what ailed her and tried to comfort her, but she didn"t explain; she said it was nothing, the effect of the sea, of the monotony, of the excitement, of leaving home. I asked her if it had anything to do with her prospects, with her marriage; whether she finds as this draws near that her heart isn"t in it. I told her she mustn"t be nervous, that I could enter into that--in short I said what I could. All she replied was that she _is_ nervous, very nervous, but that it was already over; and then she jumped up and kissed me and went away. Does she look as if she has been crying?" Mrs. Nettlepoint wound up.
"How can I tell, when she never quits that horrid veil? It"s as if she were ashamed to show her face."
"She"s keeping it for Liverpool. But I don"t like such incidents," said Mrs. Nettlepoint. "I think I ought to go above."
"And is that where you want me to help you?"
"Oh with your arm and that sort of thing, yes. But I may have to look to you for something more. I feel as if something were going to happen."
"That"s exactly what I said to Jasper this morning."
"And what did he say?"
"He only looked innocent--as if he thought I meant a fog or a storm."
"Heaven forbid--it isn"t that! I shall never be good-natured again,"
Mrs. Nettlepoint went on; "never have a girl put on me that way. You always pay for it--there are always tiresome complications. What I"m afraid of is after we get there. She"ll throw up her engagement; there will be dreadful scenes; I shall be mixed up with them and have to look after her and keep her with me. I shall have to stay there with her till she can be sent back, or even take her up to London. Do you see all that?"
I listened respectfully; after which I observed: "You"re afraid of your son."
She also had a pause. "It depends on how you mean it."
"There are things you might say to him--and with your manner; because you have one, you know, when you choose."
"Very likely, but what"s my manner to his? Besides, I _have_ said everything to him. That is I"ve said the great thing--that he"s making her immensely talked about."
"And of course in answer to that he has asked you how you know, and you"ve told him you have it from me."
"I"ve had to tell him; and he says it"s none of your business."
"I wish he"d say that," I remarked, "to my face."
"He"ll do so perfectly if you give him a chance. That"s where you can help me. Quarrel with him--he"s rather good at a quarrel; and that will divert him and draw him off."
"Then I"m ready," I returned, "to discuss the matter with him for the rest of the voyage."
"Very well; I count on you. But he"ll ask you, as he asks me, what the deuce you want him to do."
"To go to bed!"--and I"m afraid I laughed.
"Oh it isn"t a joke."
I didn"t want to be irritating, but I made my point. "That"s exactly what I told you at first."
"Yes, but don"t exult; I hate people who exult. Jasper asks of me," she went on, "why he should mind her being talked about if she doesn"t mind it herself."
"I"ll tell him why," I replied; and Mrs. Nettlepoint said she should be exceedingly obliged to me and repeated that she would indeed take the field.