Page:In a Steamer Chair and Other Stories.djvu/62

50 I thought, and why I asked you those questions which you seem to think are so impertinent. Besides this, you know, a sea acquaintance is different from any other acquaintance. As I said the first time I spoke to you&mdash;or the second&mdash;there is no one here to introduce us. On land, when a person is introduced to another person, he does not say, 'Miss Earle, this is Mr. Morris, who is a younger partner in the dry-goods house of So-and-so.' He merely says, 'Miss Earle, Mr. Morris,' and there it is. If you want to find anything out about him you can ask your introducer or ask your friends, and you can find out. Now, on shipboard it is entirely different. Suppose, for instance, that I did not tell you who I am, and&mdash;if you will pardon me for suggesting such an absurd supposition&mdash;imagine that you wanted to find out, how could you do it?"

Miss Earle looked at him for a moment, and then she answered:

"I would ask that blond young lady."

This reply was so utterly unexpected by Morris that he looked at her with wide eyes, the picture of a man dumfounded. At that moment the smoking-room steward came up to them and said:

"Will you have your coffee now, sir?"

"Coffee!" cried Morris, as if he had never heard the word before. "Coffee!"