well, then,' he cried, translating his Italian literally into English, 'I've been in your room, Miss Cordova! Who is this Tom, eh? Flowers from Tom, one! Sweets from Tom, two! A telegram from Tom, three! Tom, Tom, Tom; it is full of Tom, her room! In the end, what is this Tom? For me, I only know Tom the ruffian in the Ballo in Maschera. That is all the Tom I know!'
They all looked at Margaret and laughed. She blushed a little, more out of annoyance than from any other reason.
'The maids wished to put me out,' laughed Stromboli, 'but they could not, because I am big. So I read everything. If I tell you I read, what harm is there?'
'None whatever,' Margaret answered, 'except that it is bad manners to open other people's telegrams.'
'Oh, that! The maid had opened it with water, and was reading when I came. So I read too! You shall find it all well sealed again, have no fear! They all do so.'
'Pleasant journey,' said Schreiermeyer abruptly. 'I'm going ashore.
I'll see you in Paris in three weeks.'
'Read the book,' said Herr Tiefenbach earnestly, as he shook hands.
'It is a deep book.'
'Do not forget me!' cried Stromboli sentimentally, and he kissed
Margaret's gloves several times.
'Good-bye,' said Fräulein Ottilie. 'Every one is sorry when you go!'
Margaret was not a gushing person, but she stooped and kissed the cheerful little woman, and pressed her small hand affectionately.
'And everybody is glad when you come, my dear,' she said.
For Fräulein Ottilie was perhaps the only person in the company whom Cordova really liked, and who did not jar dreadfully on her at one time or another.
Another blast from the horn and they were all gone, leaving her and Griggs standing by the rail on the upper promenade deck. The little party gathered again on the pier when they had crossed the plank, and made farewell signals to the two, and then disappeared. Unconsciously Margaret gave a little sigh of relief, and Griggs noticed it, as he noticed most things, but said nothing.
There was silence for a while, and the gangplank was still in place when the horn blew a third time, longer than before.
'How very odd!' exclaimed Griggs, a moment after the sound had ceased.
'What is odd?' Margaret asked.
She saw that he was looking down, and her eyes followed his. A square-shouldered man in mourning was walking up the plank in a leisurely way, followed by a well-dressed English valet, who carried a despatch-box in a leathern case.
'It's not possible!' Margaret whispered in great surprise.
'Perfectly possible,' Griggs answered, in a low voice. 'That is Rufus
Van Torp.'
Margaret drew back from the rail, though the new comer was already out of sight on the lower promenade deck, to which the plank was laid to suit the height of the tide. She moved away from the door of the first cabin companion.
Griggs went with her, supposing that she wished to walk up and down. Numbers of other passengers were strolling about on the side next to the pier, waiting to see the start. Margaret went on forward, turned the deck-house and walked to the rail on the opposite side, where there was no one. Griggs glanced at her face and thought that she seemed disturbed. She looked straight before her at the closed iron doors of the next pier, at which no ship was lying.
'I wish I knew you better,' she said suddenly.
Griggs looked at her quietly. It did not occur to him to make a trivial and complimentary answer to this advance, such as most men of the world would have made, even at his age.
'I shall be very glad if we ever know each other better,' he said after a short pause.
'So shall I.'
She leaned upon the rail and looked down at the eddying water. The tide had turned and was beginning to go out. Griggs watched her handsome profile in silence for a time.
'You have not many intimate friends, have you?' she asked presently.
'No, only one or two.'
She smiled.
'I'm not trying to get confidences from you. But really, that is very vague. You must surely know whether you have only one, or whether there is another. I'm not suggesting myself as a third, either!'
'Perhaps I'm over-cautious,' Griggs said. 'It does not matter. You began by saying that you wished you knew me better. You meant that if you did, you would either tell me something which you don't tell everybody, or you would come to me for advice about something, or you would ask me to do something for you. Is that it?'
'I suppose so.'
'It was not very hard to guess. I'll answer the three cases. If you want to tell me a secret, don't. If you want advice without telling everything about the case, it will be worthless. But if there is anything I can do for you, I'll do it if I can, and I won't ask any questions.'
'That's kind and sensible,' Margaret answered. 'And I should not be in the least afraid to tell you anything. You would not repeat it.'
'No, certainly not. But some day, unless we became real friends, you would think that I might, and then you would be very sorry.'
A short pause followed.
'We are moving,' Margaret said, glancing at the iron doors again.
'Yes, we are off.'
There was another pause. Then Margaret stood upright and turned her face to her companion. She did not remember that she had ever looked steadily into his eyes since she had known him.
They were grey and rather deeply set under grizzled eyebrows that were growing thick and rough with advancing years, and they met hers quietly. She knew at once that she could bear their scrutiny for any length of time without blushing or feeling nervous, though there was something in them that was stronger than she.
'It's this,' she said at last, as if she had been talking and had reached a conclusion. 'I'm alone, and I'm a little frightened.'
'You?' Griggs smiled rather incredulously.
'Yes. Of course I'm used to travelling without any one and taking care of myself. Singers and actresses are just like men in that, and it did not occur to me this morning that this trip could be different from any other.'
'No. Why should it be so different? I don't understand.'
'You said you would do something for me without asking questions. Will you?'
'If I can.'
'Keep Mr. Van Torp away from me during the voyage. I mean, as much as you can without being openly rude. Have my chair put next to some other woman's and your own on my other side. Do you mind doing that?'
