It was Josette. She came towards him smiling. “Ah! So this is your politeness. You ask me to walk with you, but you do not wait for me. I have to find you. You are very bad.”
“I’m sorry. It was so stuffy in the saloon that …”
“It is not at all stuffy in the saloon, as you know perfectly well.” She linked her arm in his. “Now we will walk and you shall tell me what is really the matter.”
He looked at her quickly. “What is really the matter! What do you mean?”
She became the grande dame. “So you are not going to tell me. You will not tell me how you came to be on this ship. You will not tell me what has happened to-day to make you so nervous.”
“Nervous! But …”
“Yes, Monsieur Graham, nervous!” She abandoned the grande dame with a shrug. “I am sorry but I have seen people who are afraid before. They do not look at all like people who are tired or people who feel faint in a stuffy room. They have a special look about them. Their faces look very small and grey round the mouth and they cannot keep their hands still.” They had reached the stairs to the boat deck. She turned and looked at him. “Shall we go up?”
He nodded. He would have nodded if she had suggested that they jump overboard. He could think of only one thing. If she knew a frightened man when she saw one, then so did Banat. And if Banat had noticed.… But he couldn’t have noticed. He couldn’t. He …
They were on the boat deck now and she took his arm again.
“It is a very nice night,” she said. “I am glad that we can walk like this. I was afraid this morning that I had annoyed you. I did not really wish to go to Athens. That officer who thinks he is so nice asked me to go with him but I did not. But I would have gone if you had asked me. I do not say that to flatter you. I tell you the truth.”