George Wentworth jumped to his feet, the ship gave a lurch at that
particular moment, and he no sooner found his feet than he nearly lost
them again; however, he was an expert at balancing himself as well as his
accounts, and though for the moment his attention was occupied in keeping
his equilibrium, he looked down on his companion, still placidly
reclining in his chair, with a smile on his face.
'Kenyon,' he said, 'I am going to look for another girl.'
'Is one not enough for you?'
'No, I want two--one for myself, and one for you. No man can sympathize
with another unless he is in the same position himself. John, I want
sympathy, and I'm not getting it.'
'What you need more urgently,' said Kenyon calmly, 'is common-sense, and
that I am trying to supply.'
'You are doing your duty in that direction; but a man doesn't live by
common-sense alone. There comes a time when common-sense is a drug in
the market. I don't say it has come to me yet, but I'm resolved to get
you into a more sympathetic mood, so I am going to find a suitable young
lady for you.'
'More probably you are going to look for your own,' answered Kenyon, as
his friend walked off, and, disappearing round the corner, crossed to
the other side of the ship.
Kenyon did not turn again to his figures when his companion left him. He
mused over the curiously rapid turn of circumstances. He hoped Wentworth
would not take it too seriously, for he felt that, somehow or other, Miss
Brewster was just the sort of girl to throw him over after she had whiled
away a tedious voyage. Of course he could not say this to his friend, who
evidently admired Miss Brewster, but he had said as much as he could to
put Wentworth on his guard.
'Now,' said Kenyon to himself, 'if she had been a girl like _that_, I
wouldn't have minded.' The girl 'like _that_' was a young woman who for
half an hour had been walking the deck alone with marvellous skill. She
was not so handsome as the American girl, but she had a better
complexion, and there was a colour in her cheek which seemed to suggest
England. Her dress was not quite so smart nor so well-fitting as that of
the American girl; but, nevertheless, she was warmly and sensibly clad,
and a brown Tam o' Shanter covered her fair head. The tips of her hands
were in the pockets of her short blue-cloth jacket; and she walked the
deck with a firm, reliant tread that aroused the admiration of John
Kenyon. 'If she were only a girl like _that_,' he repeated to himself, 'I
wouldn't mind. There's something fresh and genuine about her. She makes
me think of the breezy English downs.'
As she walked back and forward, one or two young men seemingly made an
attempt to become acquainted with her, but it was evident to Kenyon that
the young woman had made it plain to them, politely enough, that she
preferred walking alone, and they raised their sea-caps and left her.
'She doesn't pick up the first man who comes,' he mused.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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