“That is why I did not wish to tell you what I had been thinking of—just for fear that you would put a wrong construction on it—as you have done. But now you can’t say anything much harsher to me than you have said, and so I tell you frankly just what I thought, and why I asked you those questions which you seem to think are so impertinent. Besides this, you know, a sea acquaintance is different from any other acquaintance. As I said, the first time I spoke to you—or the second—there is no one here to introduce us. On land, when a person is introduced to another person, he does not say, ‘Miss Earle, this is Mr. Morris, who is a younger partner in the house of So-and-so.’ He merely says, ‘Miss Earle, Mr. Morris,’ and there it is. If you want to find anything out about him you can ask your introducer or ask your friends, and you can find out. Now, on shipboard it is entirely different. Suppose, for instance, that I did not tell you who I am, and—if you will pardon me for suggesting such an absurd supposition—-imagine that you wanted to find out, how could you do it?” Miss Earle looked at him for a moment, and then she answered— “I would ask that blonde young lady.” This reply was so utterly unexpected by Morris that he looked at her with wide eyes, the picture of a man dumbfounded. At that moment the smoking-room steward came up to them and said— “Will you have your coffee now, sir?” “Coffee!” cried Morris, as if he had never heard the word before. “Coffee!” “Yes,” answered Miss Earle, sweetly, “we will have the coffee now, if you please. You will have a cup with me, will you not, Mr. Morris?” “Yes, I will, if it is not too much trouble.” “Oh, it is no trouble to me,” said, the young lady; “some trouble to the steward, but I believe even for him that it is not a trouble that cannot be recompensed.” Morris sipped his coffee in silence. Every now and then Miss Earle stole a quiet look at him, and apparently was waiting for him to again resume the conversation. This he did not seem in a hurry to do. At last she said— “Mr. Morris, suppose we were on shipboard and that we had become acquainted without the friendly intervention of an introducer, and suppose, if such a supposition is at all within the bounds of probability, that you wanted to find out something about me, how would you go about it?” “How would I go about it?” “Yes. How?” “I would go about it in what would be the worst possible way. I would frankly ask you, and you would as frankly snub me.” “Suppose, then, while declining to tell you anything about myself I were to refer you to somebody who would give you the information you desire, would you take the opportunity of learning?” “I would prefer to hear from yourself anything I desired to learn.”