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'Yes, such a lot of them as he knows! said Mrs. Nettlepoint. 'Such a lot of them? 'He has so many female friends in the most varied circles. 'Well, we can close round her then for I on my side knew, or used to know, her young man. 'Her young man? 'The fiancé, the intended, the one she is going out to. He can't by the way be very young now. 'How odd it sounds! said Mrs. Nettlepoint.
Jasper was there, but not Grace Mavis, as I had half-expected. I sought to learn from him what had become of her, if she were ill he must have thought I had an odious pertinacity and he replied that he knew nothing whatever about her. Mrs. Peck talked to me or tried to of Mrs. Nettlepoint, expatiating on the great interest it had been to see her; only it was a pity she didn't seem more sociable.
Nettlepoint returned early to her cabin, professing herself much tired. I know not what 'went on, but Grace Mavis continued not to show. I went in late, to bid Mrs. Nettlepoint good-night, and learned from her that the girl had not been to her.
I went above after this; the night was not quite so fair and the deck almost empty. In a moment Jasper Nettlepoint and our young lady moved past me together. "I hope you're better!" I called after her; and she tossed me over her shoulder "Oh yes, I had a headache; but the air now does me good!"
They have always had to help themselves, and have rather magnanimously failed to learn just where helping others is distinguishable from that. In no country are there fewer forms and more reciprocities. It was doubtless not singular that the ladies from Merrimac Avenue shouldn't feel they were importunate: what was striking was that Mrs. Nettlepoint didn't appear to suspect it.
I have an idea that your young lady is the person on board who will interest me most. 'Mine, indeed! She has not been near me since we left the dock. 'Well, she is very curious. 'You have such cold-blooded terms, Mrs. Nettlepoint murmured. 'Elle ne sait pas se conduire; she ought to have come to ask about me. 'Yes, since you are under her care, I said, smiling.
Nettlepoint was waiting for her to go so that I might not. This doubtless made the young lady's absence appear to us longer than it really was it was probably very brief. Her mother moreover, I think, had a vague consciousness of embarrassment.
Nettlepoint notified her new friends that she was a very inactive person at sea: she was prepared to suffer to the full with Miss Mavis, but not prepared to pace the deck with her, to struggle with her, to accompany her to meals. To this the girl replied that she would trouble her little, she was sure: she was convinced she should prove a wretched sailor and spend the voyage on her back.
"That's what we've come here for, to see all about it," said Mrs. Mavis. "My son, take pity on me and tell me what light your telegram throws," Mrs. Nettlepoint went on. "I will, dearest, when I've quenched my thirst." And he slowly drained his glass. "Well, I declare you're worse than Gracie," Mrs. Mavis commented.
'Yes, as an old friend! I replied, laughing. But I asked more seriously, 'Do you see Jasper caught like that? 'Well, he's only a boy he's younger at least than she. 'Precisely; she regards him as a child. 'As a child? 'She remarked to me herself to-day that he is so much younger. Mrs. Nettlepoint stared. 'Does she talk of it with you? That shows she has a plan, that she has thought it over!
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