Page:Guy Boothby--A Bid for Fortune.djvu/38

28 the same of you. It looks as if we are going to be fellow travellers."

She turned to a tall white-bearded man beside her.

"Papa, I must introduce you to Mr. Hatteras. You will remember that I told you how kind Mr. Hatteras was to me when those larrikins were rude to me in the Domain."

"I am sincerely obliged to you, Mr. Hatteras," he said, holding out his hand and shaking mine heartily. "My daughter did tell me, and I called yesterday at your hotel to thank you personally, but you were unfortunately not at home. Are you visiting Europe?"

"Yes, I'm going home to sell some pearls and to see the place where my father was born."

"Are you then, like myself, an Australian native? I mean, of course, as you know, Colonial born?" asked Miss Wetherell with a little laugh. The idea of her calling herself an Australian native. The very notion seemed preposterous.

"I was born at sea, a degree and a half south of Mauritius, so I don't exactly know what you would call me. I hope you have comfortable cabins?"

"Very. We have made two or three voyages in this boat before, and we always take the same places. And now, papa, we must really go and see where poor Miss Thompson is. We are beginning to feel the swell and she'll be wanting to go below. Good-bye for the present, Mr. Hatteras."

I raised my cap and watched her walk away down the deck, balancing herself as if she had been accustomed to a heaving plank all her life. Then I turned to watch the fast receding shore, and to my own thoughts, which were none of the saddest, I can confidently assure you. For it must be confessed, and why should I deny it?