"Excuse me--no! I've had experience. Some dwindle to skeletons, but not your build. Niece of mine sailed with me two years ago. Twenty-two-inch waist. Put on a stone in three months. All her bodices altered. Two stones more since then, and a double chin. Looks like her own mother. But of course if you take much exercise... Some of the civil appointments are quite good. If you keep horses, and ride each morning--" "Just so," assented Katrine. "Just so." She was discomposed by the prospect of obesity, the more so as Dorothea's excessive thinness would seem to confirm the assertion that the climate was extreme in its effects. A moment passed in the earnest consideration of the disadvantages of fat _versus_ lean, then the grey-haired one plunged boldly into autobiography: "My husband was a judge. Mannering. Bombay. Thousand a year pension, but not a penny to leave behind. No use any one making up to _me_! Got a boy in the Indian Cavalry. Going out now to pay him a call. Nice boy. Was, at least, when I saw him last. May have changed, of course." Katrine's looks became suddenly infused with interest. "Then our destinations are not far apart. Do you know--have you any friends in the--Regiment?" "Not--one--soul!" said the stranger emphatically, and in a manner which seemed to imply that nothing would induce her to consent to such an entanglement. She hunched up the pillows behind her back, and continued forcibly. "Detest the military. Always did. Quite against my wishes that the boy went in; but there I am--silly fool! proud as any one of 'em, when I see him dressed up... Stinting myself for his gold lace! Well, well, we're all fools at heart, my dear, every man jack of us, and women too... When are you going to take your bath?" The catechism was over for the moment. Katrine staggered out of bed, robed herself in a dainty blue dressing-gown and smoothed her dark locks, uneasily conscious that not a ribbon, a lace, or a French knot itself escaped the scrutiny of the watching eyes. When she returned, fresh and rosy, her companion departed in her turn, and returned just as Katrine was finishing her hair in time to announce briskly: "Warm sunny day! Seen three girls in white frocks. Sport one yourself, and cut 'em out! Great thing to make a good impression!" "I don't care,"--began Katrine haughtily, then the spirit of the hour choked the words in her throat. "Yes, after all, I _do_!" she laughed, and kneeling before her cabin trunk lifted a fresh white frock from the tray. "I'll put on this, and do credit to our cabin!" "Cheers!" cried the stranger, and with a pleasing frankness extracted her false teeth.