"Of course I'm happy," she said in a low voice. "At least," she added, "I know I ought to be, and I know I never knew what happiness was till I had you. It was only that I thought it would be--perhaps it would be good for me--now--if we travelled." Stainton cursed himself for a negligent brute. "What a beast I am!" he said, his arm encircling her waist. "We shall go wherever you want, and we shall go to-morrow." Muriel smiled ruefully. "Perhaps," she submitted, "the real reason is only that I've always wanted so to travel and have never had the chance before." But Stainton would hear of no reason but her first. He upbraided himself again for his stupidity in not guessing her need before she could have given it expression. "I've been cruel to you!" he declared. She stopped him with a swift embrace. "You're never anything," she contritely vowed, "but just darling to me. I only thought----" "I know, I know. Where shall we go, Muriel? How about France? I ought to see that syndicate, you know: I ought to meet those men personally. Then there's Paris. I have always longed for Paris myself, and now I shall have you for my guide there." "Your guide, Jim?" "Well, you speak French like a book, and I have forgotten nearly all of the little I ever learned." "I speak school-French," Muriel corrected him. "At any rate," he assured her, "yours is fluent, and I can only stammer in the language. Then, too," he went on, "there will be the trip across. That will be good for you. Sea air ought to be good for you." She winced, and so he hurried to add: "I think I need a bracer, too.--Are you a good sailor, Muriel?" "I don't know. I've never been on the ocean. Are you?" "I used to be." His eyes darkened. "It's a good many years since I have tried the water. But I know I shall be all right. I am in such splendid shape. Where is a newspaper? Wait a minute; I'll ring for one. Aren't you glad for newspapers now? They carry shipping advertisements, you see. We'll look up the sailings. We have found our first five heavens in America; we must find the sixth in France, and then we must come back here so that our seventh will happen on American soil." Considering the fact that he did not wish to go, he was self-sacrificingly energetic. He was so energetic that they left Aiken on the next morning and, three days later, were aboard their steamer. The Newberrys were out of town, still enjoying the rest that they had earned by settling Muriel for life. George Holt was, however, there and had come all the way to Hoboken to see them off. "And as a German steamship captain once said to me when I asked him to lunch with me at my club," explained Holt, "it's a terribly long way from Hoboken to America." "It was good of you to come," said Muriel, while the crowd of second-class passengers and the friends of passengers jostled about the first-class promenade deck. "Don't you wish you were coming along?" "Better," said Stainton, already in his steamer cap.