"I couldn't very well help myself," she said. "There was a girl, a little older than I am, perhaps, sitting next to me on deck, and she mentioned your name, and somehow--I hardly know how it came about--but she seemed so kind, and so interested in it all, that--that I believe I told her everything.... You aren't _angry_ with me, are you, Peter?" She had been making a _confidante_ of Miss Tyrrell! It was awkward, extremely awkward and annoying, if, as he began to fear, her confidences were of a tender character. "I--I am not exactly angry," he said; "but I do think you might be more careful whom you speak to. What did you tell her?" "_All!_" she said, with the same little quiver in her underlip he had noticed before. "That is no answer," said Peter (it certainly was none for him). "Tell me _what_ you said?" "I--I told her about you, and about me ... and--and about _him!_" "Oh!" said Peter, "about me, and you, and him? Well, and--and how did she _take_ it?" "She didn't say very much; she turned very pale. It was rather rough at the time, and I don't think she can be a very good sailor; for before I had even finished she got up and went below, and I haven't seen her since." "But you told her about 'him'?" he persisted; "and when you say 'him,' I presume you refer to----?" Here he paused expectantly. "Of course!" she answered, with a touch of impatience. "Whom else should I be _likely_ to refer to?" "It's excessively absurd!" said Peter, driven to candour at last. "I--I remember perfectly that you did mention all the circumstances at the time: but I've a shocking memory for names; and, just for the minute, I--I find it difficult to recall where 'he' comes in exactly. Curious, isn't it?" "Curious?" she said, passionately; "it's _abominable!_" "It is," agreed Peter; "I quite admit that I _ought_ to know--only, I _don't_." "This is cruel, unmanly!" she said, brokenly. "How _could_ you forget--how can you insult me by _pretending_ that you could forget such a thing as that? It is odious of you to make a--a joke of it all, when you know perfectly well that----" "My--my dear young lady!" he declared, as she left her speech unfinished, "I am as far from any disposition to be jocular as ever I was in my life. Let me beg you to be a little more explicit. We seem to have got into a trifling misunderstanding, which, I am sure, a little patience will easily put right." ... "Put right?" said Sophia, behind him. "I was not aware, Peter, that the clock was out of order. What is the matter with it?" He almost staggered back from the chimneypiece, upon which he had found himself leaning in an attitude of earnest persuasion. "I--I was only thinking, my love," he said, "that it wanted regulating." "If it does," said Sophia, "you are hardly the proper person to do it, Peter. The less you meddle with it the better, I should think!" "Perhaps so, my dear Sophia, perhaps so!" said Peter, sitting down with the utmost docility.