"Six," was the reply. "Including me--seven." The inquirer ran wildly down again, but the _Enchantress_ sped on through the glorious moonlight as though he scarcely mattered. On the texas roof Mrs. Gilmore sat with "California," her husband with Watson, Hugh with Ramsey. But only the last two were out on its forward verge. Mrs. Gilmore had found it cool there and with the others had drawn back a few steps, into the pleasant warmth of the chimneys. For average passengers the evening was far gone, but not for players, pilots, Californians, or lovers--of the river. A mile or so farther on, the white-jacket reappeared and, gliding by all others to reach his captain, said, with mincing feet and a semicircular bow, while presenting a tray of six, not seven, sherry cobblers: "Sev'l gen'lemen's comp'ments, an' ax, will Mis' Gil'----" "What gentlemen? Who?" "Sev'l gen'lemen, yassuh. Dey tell me dess say, sev'l gen'lemen. Sev'l gen'lemen ax will Mis' Gilmo' have de kin'ness fo' to sing some o' dem same songs she sing night afo' las' in de ladies' cabin an' las' night up hyuh.... Yass'm, whiles dey listens f'om de b'ileh deck." "Has my father gone to bed?" asked Ramsey. "No'm, he up yit. He done met up wid dese sev'l gen'lemen an' find dey old frien's--callin' deyse'v's in joke Gideon' Ban'--an' he talkin' steamboats wid 'em----" The speaker tittered as Ramsey inquiringly extended her arms out forward and crossed her wrists. "Yass'm," he said, "hin' feet on de front rail, yass'm." It seemed but fair that Mrs. Gilmore, to meet the compliment generously, should sing at the very front of the hurricane roof, just over the forward guards of the boiler deck. But Ramsey and Hugh kept their place. Ramsey wanted to be near the sky, she explained, when songs were sung on the water by moonlight, and eagerly spoke for two or three which her friend had sung of old on the _Votaress_ to spiritualize the "acrobatics" of the Brothers Ambrosia. The singer's voice was rich, trained, and mature, and her repertory a survival of young days--nights--before curtains and between acts: Burns, Moore, Byron, and Mrs. Norton, alternating with "The Lavender Girl," "Rose of Lucerne," "Dandy Jim o' Caroline," and "O Poor Lucy Neal." And now she sang her best, in the belief that while she sang the pair up between her and the pilot-house were speaking conclusively. Let us see. "Ramsey," said Hugh, and waited--ten seconds--twenty. Well, why should he not? In eight years and a half there were ten million times twenty seconds and she had waited all of them. At length she responded and the moment she did so she thought she had spoken too promptly although all she said was, "Yes?" "The hour's come at last," said Hugh. "What hour?--hour to name that boat?" "Yes, to name that boat. Only not that first. Ramsey, I've told your father all I ever wanted to tell you."