"Good-by--Mr. Spencer--_b-bon voyage_!" "Hi, Mr. Feist, mighty handsome of you to come down to see me off!" "Safe journey, Spencer! Remember you've got a precious piece of anxiety waiting back here for you." "Oh, Mr. Feist--isn't--isn't--it awful--submarine-time and all? I--I just can't bear it!" "Now! Now! Is that the way for a brave little girl to talk?" "Bleema, if you can't control yourself, you had better go sit in the car. I'm ashamed before the company." "Roody, the poor child!" "He--that's the only way papa talks to me these days--fault-finding!" "Now, now, Miss Bleema! Here--take mine; yours is all wet." Another blast then, reverberating into the din. "All aboard!" "Good-by, Lester--good-by, darling--cable every day--by--good-by--boy!" "Good-by, little Reddie! Thanks for the beautiful fruits and letters. Good-by, Mr. Pelz!" "Play fair in the picture, Spencer. Don't hog the scenes. Help instead of hinder Sopinsky." "Indeed I will, sir! Good-by, Mrs. Pelz!" "Good-by, Lester! God bless you, my boy! Take care of yourself, and remember my little girl is--" "Lester--Lester, a cable every day!" "Bleema, will you please let the man catch his boat? It's an embarrassment to even watch you." "Lester--Lester--" "Yes, yes; good-by, everybody!" "I'll be out at the pier-edge--wave back, darling!" "Yes, yes! Good-by, Miss Beautiful! By, all!" And then, from an upper deck, more and more shouted farewells. "They're moving! Come, Mr. Feist--please--with me--I've got the permit--don't let papa see us--come--the pier-edge!" "Sure! This way, Miss Bleema--here--under--quick!" Out in the open, May lay with Italian warmth over a harbor that kicked up the tiniest of frills. A gull cut through the blueness, winging it in festoons. "Over this way, Miss Bleema; we can see her steaming out." "Lester--good-by--Lester--a cable every day! I'll be waiting. Good-by!" All this unavailingly flung to the great hulk of boat moving so proud of bow and so grandly out to sea, decks of faces and waving kerchiefs receding quickly. "Good-by--darling--oh--oh--" "'Sh-h--'sh-h-h, Miss Bleema. Here--take another of mine. Yours is all wet again. My--what a rainy day! Here--let me dry them for you. Hold still!" "Oh--oh--cable every day, darling--write--oh, Mr. Feist--he don't see us--he's out of sight--don't wipe 'em so hard, Mr. Feist--you--you h-hurt!" Out toward the blue, the billowing fields sailed away the gray steamer, cutting a path that sprayed and sang after. Sunlight danced and lay whitely as far as the eye could reach. It prolonged for those on shore the contour of the line of faces above each deck; it picked points of light from off everywhere--off smokestacks and polished railings, off plate-glass and brass-bound port-holes and even down the ship's flank, to where gilt letters spelled out shiningly: "_LUSITANIA._" A BOOB SPELLED BACKWARD