Page:In a Steamer Chair and Other Stories.djvu/19

Rh speed a few moments before, he noticed a lady trying to set together her steamer chair, which had seemingly given way—a habit of steamer chairs.

She looked up appealingly at Mr. Morris, but that gentleman was too preoccupied with his own situation to be gallant. As he passed her, the lady said:

"Would you be kind enough to see if you can put my steamer chair together?"

Mr. Morris looked astonished at this very simple request. He had resolved to make this particular voyage without becoming acquainted with any body, more especially a lady.

"Madam," he said, "I shall be pleased to call to your assistance the deck steward, if you wish."

"If I had wished that," replied the lady, with some asperity, "I would have asked you to do so. As it is, I asked you to fix it yourself."

"I do not understand you," said Mr. Morris, with some haughtiness. "I do not see that it matters who mends the steamer chair so long as the steamer chair is mended. I am not a deck steward." Then, thinking he had spoken rather harshly, he added, "I am not a deck steward, and don't understand the construction of steamer chairs as well as they do, you see."