"You are impatient, Mr. Raleigh. You have dear friends at home, whom you wish to see, who wish to see you?" "No," he replied, with a certain bitterness in his tone. "There is no one to whom I hasten, no one who waits to receive me." "No one? But that is terrible! Then why should you wish to hasten? For me, I would always be willing to loiter along, to postpone home indefinitely." "That is very generous, Mademoiselle." "Mr. Raleigh"-- "Well?" "I wish--please--you must not say Mademoiselle. Nobody will address me so, shortly. Give me my name,--call me Marguerite. _Je vous en prie_." And she looked up with a blush deepening the apple-bloom of her cheek. "Marguerite? Does it answer for pearl or for daisy with you?" "Oh, they called me so because I was such a little round white baby. I couldn't have been very precious, though, or she never would have parted with me. Yes, I wish we might drift on some lazy current for years. I hate to shorten the distance. I stand in awe of my father, and I do not remember my mother." "Do not remember?" "She is so perfect, so superb, so different from me! But she ought to love her own child!" "Her own child?" "And then I do not know the customs of this strange land. Shall I be obliged to keep an establishment?" "Keep an establishment?" "It is very rude to repeat my words so! You oughtn't! Yes, keep an establishment!" "I beg your pardon, Mademoiselle." "No, it is I who am rude." "Not at all,--but mysterious. I am quite in the dark concerning you." "Concerning me?" "Ah, Miss Marguerite, it is my turn now." "Oh! It must be----This is your mystery, _n'est ce pas?_ Mamma was my grandmamma. My own mother was far too young when mamma gave her in marriage; and, to make amends, mamma adopted me and left me her name and her fortune. So that I am very wealthy. And now shall I keep an establishment?" "I should think not," said Mr. Raleigh, with a smile. "Do you know, you constantly reassure me? Home grows less and less a bugbear when you speak of it. How strange! It seems as if I had known you a year, instead of a week." "It would probably take that period of time to make us as well acquainted under other circumstances." "I wish you were going to be with us always. Shall you stay in America, Mr. Raleigh?" "Only till the fall. But I will leave you at your father's door"---- And then Mr. Raleigh ceased suddenly, as if he had promised an impossibility. "How long before we reach New York?" she asked. "In about nine hours," he replied,--adding, in unconscious undertone, "if ever." "What was that you said to yourself?" she asked, in a light and gayly inquisitive voice, as she looked around and over the ship. "Why, how many there are on deck! It is such a beautiful night, I suppose. Eh, Mr. Raleigh?" "Are you not tired of your position?" he asked. "Sit down beside me here." And he took a seat. "No, I would rather stand. Tell me what you said."