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102 with a sigh, "but what you yourself have confirmed, I do not pay much attention to what she says."

"Well, you don't pay much attention to what I say, either," he replied. "However, as I say, there is one person I am not sorry for; I even wish it were raining. I am very revengeful, you see."

"I do not know that I am very sorry for her myself," replied Miss Earle frankly; "but I am sorry for her poor old father, who hasn't appeared in the saloon a single day except the first. He has been sick the entire voyage."

"Her father?" cried Morris, with a rising inflection in his voice.

"Certainly."

"Why, bless my soul! Her father has been dead for ages and ages."

"Then who is the old man she is with?"

"Old man! It would do me good to have her hear you call him the old man. Why, that is her husband."

"Her husband!" echoed Miss Earle, with wide-open eyes. "I thought he was her father."

"Oh, not at all. It is true, as you know, that I was engaged to the young lady, and I presume, if I had become a partner in our firm sooner, we would have been married. But that was a longer time coming than suited my young lady's convenience,