“To have been brutes to others.” Mrs. Locke turned to go back into the horrible little cabin. “The best fellow I ever met told me that no man knew how to treat a woman who hadn’t stood over the grave of one he’d loved.” “Well, I say again, you don’t know the sort of man I—Why, even that dreadful Matt Gedge—even he goes and collects money for the poor woman in the second class.” “I never said they wouldn’t show kindness when the notion took them. It’s justice they don’t understand.” And with that she went back to the woman who was having a fit on the floor. Up on deck Hildegarde found a gale blowing. Where was the giant? The chicken-merchant, joining Miss Mar at the door, held on to his slouch hat while he inquired significantly after the health of the purser. Miss Mar had not heard he was indisposed? “Oh, yes, you ought to go and see him. It’s nothin’ catchin’—calls it bronchitis. Reckon it’s heart trouble,” and he cackled like the most elated of his hens. Again she came down-stairs, wandering aimlessly about, and then stopping by a little knot of lookers-on at the eternal game. In that childish mood, that may once in a while fall upon even a reasonable girl, she thought vaguely that if she stood long enough before this spectacle held to be unfit for feminine eyes, the giant would certainly come again and take her away. But the giant did nothing of the kind, and presently she forgot him. She usually forgot things when she watched this particular group of players. She had been arrested just here, unbeknown to the giant, a couple of nights before on her way to bed. In front of where Hildegarde stood, Governor Reinhart was giving up his seat to an eagerly waiting claimant. “They are beginning to play too high for me,” his Excellency observed affably to Miss Mar. “Who is winning?” “That woman over there. She’s a holy terror.” “Not that one with the gentle face and the pointed chin?” “Yes. Very pleasant and soft-spoken, too. Wife of the man next—playing with the professional gambler gang. They don’t tackle _her_. She’s a corker with the cards!”