not come. With all her heart and soul she did wish it, yet—she loved him. I wondered if he knew that, or if not how much he would give to learn it. 

 "You can't get away from me this time," he said, not truculently, but pleadingly, as if he were afraid she might somehow slip out of his hands.  "We'll have five days and a half—I hope six—together. If I can't persuade you in five days and a half——" 

 "You couldn't in five hundred years and a half! Rod, what do you think of me? Do you suppose I want you to die?" 

 "Do you suppose I'm afraid?" 

 "No. But I am—for you. Nothing on this earth can induce me to change my mind. You only make us both miserable by keeping on. Oh, Rod, here comes Aunt Marian! This is her chair." 

 Roger Odell glanced in the direction the girl's eyes gave him. I did likewise. A woman was coming, a tall woman in brown. A generation ago she would have been middle-aged; in our generation such women are young. She looked about thirty-eight, and so I put her down as ten years older. She was dusky olive, with a narrow face, banded black hair, and a swaying throat: rather a beautiful Leonardo da Vinci sort of woman. 

 Evidently she was as much astonished to see Odell as the girl had been, but she had a different way of showing it. She did not seem to mind his presence when she got over her surprise. She shook hands and let him put her into her chair, tucking the brown fur rug around her body and under her slim feet. I thought she seemed more Italian than American. She was very agreeable to Odell, in a cool, detached way, but when she inquired if he ought not to be going below to lunch, even a man of his determination was obliged to take the hint.  "We are having something brought to us on deck," she explained.  "Come back if you like when you have finished." 

 My lameness gave me an excuse for troubling the deck steward, who fetched me a plate of cold chicken at about the time when more elaborately furnished trays were placed before the two ladies. They had more to eat than I, but they finished sooner; at least, it was so with the younger. There was no sea on, yet she left her luncheon almost untouched, and after five minutes' playing with it went indoors. No sooner had she got safely away than Odell came back to accept the invitation given by "Aunt Marian," only to find it no longer worth his acceptance.  (Recalling her words, I realised that she had never expected "Grace" to stay.)  Odell asked for a chair, nevertheless, and had it put next 

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