“I think,” replied Miss Earle, “that it is more remarkable that you should remember me than that I should remember you. Ladies very rarely notice the shop-girls who wait upon them.” “You seemed so superior to your station,” said Blanche, “that I could not help remembering you, and could not help thinking what a pity it was you had to be there.” “I do not think that there is anything either superior or inferior about the station. It is quite as honourable, or dishonourable, which ever it may be, as any other branch of business. I cannot see, for instance, why my station, selling ribbons at retail, should be any more dishonourable than the station of the head of the firm, who merely does on a very large scale what I was trying to do for him on a very limited scale.” “Still,” said Blanche, with a yawn, “people do not all look upon it in exactly that light.” “Hardly any two persons look on any one thing in the same light. I hope you have enjoyed your voyage so far?” “I have not enjoyed it very much,” replied the young lady with a sigh. “I am sorry to hear that. I presume your father has been ill most of the way?” “My father?” cried the other, looking at her questioner. “Yes, I did not see him at the table since the first day.” “Oh, he has had to keep his room almost since we left. He is a very poor sailor.” “Then that must make your voyage rather unpleasant?” The blonde young lady made no reply, but, taking up the book which Miss Earle was reading, said, “You don’t find Mr. Morris much of a reader, I presume? He used not to be.” “I know very little about Mr. Morris,” said Miss Earle, freezingly. “Why, you knew him before you came on board, did you not?” questioned the other, raising her eyebrows. “No, I did not.” “You certainly know he is junior partner in the establishment where you work?” “I know that, yes, but I had never spoken to him before I met him on board this steamer.” “Is that possible? Might I ask you if there is any probability of your becoming interested in Mr. Morris?” “Interested! What do you mean?” “Oh, you know well enough what I mean. We girls do not need to be humbugs with each other, whatever we may be before the men. When a young woman meets a young man in the early morning, and has coffee with him, and when she reads to him, and tries to cultivate his literary tastes, whatever they may be, she certainly shows some interest in the young man, don’t you think so?” Miss Earle looked for a moment indignantly at her questioner. “I do not recognise your right,” she said, “to ask me such a question.”