'Certainly,' she replied; 'I would not walk with a gentleman whose name I did not know.' 'Really?' sneered her cousin. 'And pray were you introduced to him?' 'I do not think,' answered Edith quietly, 'any person has a right to ask me that question except my father. He has not asked it, and, as you have, I will merely answer that I _was_ introduced to Mr. Kenyon.' 'I did not know you had any mutual acquaintance on board who could make you known to each other.' 'Well, the ceremony was a little informal. We were introduced by our mutual friend, old Father Neptune. Father Neptune, being, as you know, a little boisterous this morning, took the liberty of flinging me upon Mr. Kenyon. I weigh something more than a feather, and the result was--although Mr. Kenyon was good enough to say he was uninjured--that the chair on which he sat had not the same consideration for my feelings, and it went down with a crash. I thought Mr. Kenyon should take my chair in exchange for the one I had the misfortune to break, but Mr. Kenyon thought otherwise. He said he was a mining engineer, and that he could not claim to be a very good one if he found any difficulty in mending a deck-chair. It seems he succeeded in doing so, and that is the whole history of my introduction to, and my intercourse with, Mr. Kenyon, Mining Engineer.' 'Most interesting and romantic,' replied the young man; 'and do you think that your father approves of your picking up indiscriminate acquaintances in this way?' Edith, flushing a little at this, said: 'I would not willingly do what my father disapproved of;' then in a lower voice she added: 'except, perhaps, one thing.' Her father, who had caught snatches of the conversation, now leaned across towards his nephew, and said warningly: 'I think Edith is quite capable of judging for herself. This is my seventh voyage with her, and I have always found such to be the case. This happens to be your first, and so, were I you, I would not pursue the subject further.' The young man was silent, and Edith gave her father a grateful glance. Thus it was that, while she might not have given a thought to Kenyon, the remarks which her cousin had made, brought to her mind, when she was alone, the two young men, and the contrast between them was not at all to the advantage of her cousin. The scrubbing-brushes on the deck above him woke Kenyon early next morning. For a few moments after getting on deck he thought he had the ship to himself. One side of the deck was clean and wet; on the other side the men were slowly moving the scrubbing-brushes backward and forward, with a drowsy swish-swish. As he walked up the deck, he saw there was one passenger who had been earlier than himself. Edith Longworth turned round as she heard his step, and her face brightened into a smile when she saw who it was. Kenyon gravely raised his steamer cap and bade her 'Good-morning.' 'You are an early riser, Mr. Kenyon.' 'Not so early as you are, I see.'