“Isobel, you promised your father—” “To look after my health during the voyage. Do you think that I intend only to sleep, eat, and read novels all the way to London? Then, indeed, I should be ill. But there is a French Comte on the ship. He is mine, too.” “You mean to find safety in numbers?” “Oh, there are others. Of course, I am sure of my little Count. He twisted his mustache with such an air when I skidded past him in the companionway.” Elsie bent forward to give the chatterer another cup of tea. “And you promised to read Molière at least two hours daily!” she sighed good-humoredly. Even the most sensible people, and Elsie was very sensible, begin a long voyage with idiotic programs of work to be done. “I mean to substitute a live Frenchman for a dead one—that is all. And I am sure Monsieur le Comte Edouard de Poincilit will do our French far more good than ‘Les Fourberies de Scapin.’” “Am I to be included in the lessons? And you actually know the man’s name already?” “Read it on his luggage, dear girl. He has such a lot. See if he doesn’t wear three different colored shirts for breakfast, lunch, and tea. And, if _you_ refuse to help, who is to take care of le p’tit Edouard while I give the captain a trot round. Don’t look cross, there’s a darling, though you _do_ remind me, when you open your eyes that way, of a delightful little American schoolma’am I met in Lima. She had drifted that far on her holidays, and I believe she was horrified with me.” “Perhaps she thought you were really the dreadful person you made yourself out to be. Now, Isobel, that does not matter a bit in Valparaiso, where you are known, but in Paris and London—” “Where I mean to be equally well known, it is a passport to smart society to be _un peu risqué_. Steward! Give my compliments to Captain Courtenay, and say that Miss Maxwell and Miss Baring hope he will favor them with his company to tea.” Elsie’s bright, eager face flushed slightly. She leaned forward, with a certain squaring of the shoulders, being a determined young person in some respects. “For once, I shall let you off,” she said in a low voice. “So I give you fair warning, Isobel, I must not be included in impromptu invitations of that kind. Next time I shall correct your statement most emphatically.” “Good gracious! I only meant to be polite. Tut, tut! as dad says when he can’t swear before ladies, I shan’t make the running for you any more.” Elsie drummed an impatient foot on the deck. There was a little pause. Isobel closed her eyes lazily, but she opened them again when she heard her friend say: