"It makes every difference!"
"By heaven, I've got to see you!" For the first time she realized the force of the dull rage that burned within him. "I want to know what's before us, and how we're going to act!"
"I tell you, Jim, I can't talk to you here!"
"You mean you don't care to!" he flashed out.
"Can't you trust me?" she pleaded.
"Trust you? What has trust to do in a business like ours?"
"It is your business—until you put an end to it!" And her voice shook with the repressed bitterness of her spirit. "I tried to see you quietly, last night, but you had gone to your cabin. I have a feeling that we're under the eye of every steward on this ship—I know we are being watched, all the time. And if you were seen here with me, it would only drag you in, and make it harder to straighten out, in the end. Can't you see what's going on?"
"Yes, I have been seeing what's going on—and I'm sick of it!"
"Oh, not that, Jim!" she cried, in a little muffled wail. "You know it would never be that!"
His one dominating feeling was that which grew out of the stinging consciousness that she wanted to escape him, that the moment had come when she could make an effort to evade him. But he was only paying the penalty! He had sowed, he told himself, and it was only natural that in time he should reap! Already he was losing her! Already, it might be, he had lost her!