"You didn't say the 'whole' time. And anyhow, there's such a crowd on board, they might have stuck a fellow-soldier in with you at the last moment. Didn't they warn you that they couldn't promise a cabin to yourself? Naturally they'd have chosen a V.C. as the least insupportable person." "Several V.C.'s I've met have been most insupportable persons," grumbled Severance. Something in his tone made the girl suddenly face him with wide-open eyes. She saw the dusky stain of red under the olive skin, and the drawing down of the black brows. "Why, Tony, how stupid of me not to remember before!" she exclaimed. There! It had come--the thing that was bound to come sooner or later. Severance, rawly sensitive on this subject which the girl refused to drop, had wanted it to be later. For the first time he thought that Marise Sorel was more obstinate than a beautiful young woman ought to be. In a man he would call such persistence mulish. CHAPTER II EXIT THE BLIGHTER "Stupid not to remember what?" Severance still temporised, though he knew the answer. "Not to remember that man named Garth, in your regiment, who was promoted from a private to be an officer, and won the V.C. I think it was Mums who asked you about him one day, when she'd read something in the _Daily Mail_, and you said he was a cad. Is this by any chance the same Garth?" "By evil chance, it is." Marise was interested. She was dramatic, and liked coincidences. Mrs. Sorel was interested too, with that part of her mind--the principal part--which was not reading Wells's _Joan and Peter_. It was quite easy, for two reasons, to unhook her attention from the book. One reason was that as a chaperon she was reading by discretion, not inclination. The other reason was, if she had to read at all, she would secretly have preferred a "smart society" novel. But when she read in public she always selected a book which could be talked about intellectually. She knew how strong this feeling of Lord Severance against the regimental hero had been, and she wished that Marise would show a little tact, and not vex him. He had not proposed yet! But Marise went on. "How quaint that your Major Garth should be on board our ship!" "For Heaven's sake, don't call him my Major Garth, dear girl! I loathe the brute." "But why, old thing? You might tell me why." "I did, at the time your mother mentioned him." "If you did, I've forgotten. Do tell me again. It sounds exciting." Mary Sorel thought that intervention would now be more useful than detachment.