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 be not because of her but in spite of her. She almost forgot the Captain for the moment, but he answered her question and stood his ground.

“My dear Mrs. Trevelyan,” said he reprovingly, “I did n’t mean to suggest that this criminal might be your friend,—I only said you might know him. That ’s an entirely different matter, is n’t it? You might know Jack Johnson, the prize-fighter, or Nan Patterson, or Oscar Wilde—”

"What a delightful circle of acquaintances!” laughed Lily, amused in spite of herself. “If you ’d only throw in Harry Thaw, Tod Sloan, Abe Hunmiel, and Grand Duke Boris it would be really chic,— a real salon!”

The Captain seemed a bit annoyed.

"You ’re a very witty woman,” said he stiffly. “I can’t argue with you.” Then he added more genially. “But don’t you want to stroll around the ship and see what we can do in the Sherlock Holmes line?”

It suddenly occurred to Lily that it was conceivably possible that if she went with Ponsonby she might somehow be able to divert his attention or throw him off the track, so far as Cosmo was concerned.