"You are too humble, Miss Bruce; sometimes you seem to be almost on your knees to Cicely, as though you had done her some great wrong. The truth is the other way; she ought to be on her knees to you. You brought her off when she hadn't the force to come herself, poor little woman! And you did it boldly and quickly, just as a man would have done it. Now that I know you, I can imagine the whole thing." "Never speak of that time; never," murmured Eve. "Well, I won't, then, if you don't like it. But you will let me say how glad I am that you intend to remain with her, at least for a while. You will see from this that I don't believe a word of her story about your dislike for my brother." "There is nothing I would not do for him!" "Yes, you like to do things; to be active. They tell me that you are fond of having your own way; but that is the very sort of person they need--a woman like you, strong and cool. After a while you would really like Ferdie, you couldn't help it. And he would like you." "It is impossible that he should like me." She rose quickly. "You're going in? Well, fifteen hours in the open air _are_ an opiate. Should you care to go forward first for a moment? I can show you a place where you can look down below; there are two hundred emigrants on board; Norwegians." She hesitated, drawing her shawl about her. "Take my arm; I can guide you better so. It's dark, and I know the ins and outs." She put her hand upon his arm. He drew it further through. "I don't want you to be falling down!" They went forward along the narrow side. Conversation was not easy, they had to make their way round various obstacles by sense of feeling; still Eve talked; she talked hastily, irrelevantly. When she came to the end of her breath she found herself speaking this sentence: "I like your friend Mr. Hollis so much!" "Yes, Kit is a wonderful fellow; he has extraordinary talent." He spoke in perfect good faith. "Oh, extraordinary?" said Eve, abandoning Hollis with feminine versatility, as an obscure feeling, which she did not herself recognize, rose within her. "If you don't think so, it's because you don't know him. He is an excellent classical scholar, to begin with; he has read everything under the sun; he is an inventor, a geologist, and one of the best lawyers in the state, in spite of his notion about not practising." "You don't add that he is an excellent auctioneer?" "No; that he is not, I am sorry to say; he is a very bad one." "Yet it is the occupation which he has himself selected. Does that show such remarkable talent? Now you, with your mining--" She stopped. "I didn't select mining," answered Paul, roughly, "and I'm not particularly good at it; I took what I could get, that's all."