"I can only assure you, madam," he began, "that if unhappily I have--er--been the means of furnishing gossip, it has been entirely unintentional." She seemed so much mollified by this, that he proceeded with more confidence: "As to anything I may have said to your daughter----" when she almost bounded from her seat with fury. "My _daughter_, sir! Do you mean to sit there and tell me that you had the audacity to so much as hint of such a thing to my daughter, of all people?" "So--so much depends on who your daughter is!" said Peter, completely losing his head. "You dared to strike this cruel and unmanly blow at the self-respect of a sensitive girl--to poison her defenceless ears with your false, dastardly insinuations--and you can actually admit it?" "I don't know whether I can admit it or not yet," he replied. "And--and you do put things so very strongly! It is like this: if you are referring to any conversation I may have had with Miss Tyrrell----" "_Miss Tyrrell?_ You have told her _too!_" exclaimed this terrible old matron, thereby demonstrating that, at least, she was not Lady Tyrrell. "I--I _should_ have said Miss Davenport," said Peter, correcting himself precipitately. "Miss Davenport as well? Upon my word! And pray, sir, may I ask how many other ladies on board this ship are in possession of your amiable confidences?" He raised his hands in utter despair. "I can't say," he groaned. "I don't really know what I may have said, or whom I may have said it to! I--I seem to have done so much in my spare time, but I never meant anything!" "It may be so," she said; "indeed, you hardly seem to me accountable for your actions or you would not appear in such a ridiculous costume as that, with a sprig of orange-blossom in your button-hole and a high hat, too!" "I quite feel," said Peter, blushing, "that such a costume must strike you as inappropriate; but--but I happened to be trying them on, and--rather than keep you waiting----" "Well, well, sir, never mind your costume--the question is, if you are genuinely anxious to repair the wrong you have done, what course do you propose to take?" "I will be perfectly frank with you, madam," said Peter: "I am not in a position to repair any wrong I have done--if I _have_ done any wrong (which I don't admit)--by taking any course whatever!" "You are _not_!" she cried. "And you tell me so to my face?" After all, reflected Peter, why should he be afraid of this old lady? In a few more minutes he would be many hundreds of miles away, and he would take very good care not to come back again. He felt master of the situation, and determined to brazen it out.