"Why not?" said Beatrix. "He had the money."
"Quite," said Franklin drily. "Well, this, where my finger is, is the flush deck, running from the bows to the stern, broken here by a well between the forecastle head and the fore part of the bridge."
Beatrix laughed. "You're a regular sailor, aren't you?"
Franklin went on. It was good to be so near to this bewitching girl. He would have liked to absorb her attention for the whole evening. "Running aft from the bridge to within forty feet or so of the stern are all the deck houses. Do you see? Here's the library. Abaft, here, the dining saloon. Continuing aft, on the port side, here, the pantry, the enclosed space over the engine-room, and on the starboard side a passage leading to this room and the writing-room."
"And I don't believe you ever use either," said Beatrix.
"I don't. Now look. The roof and sides of this line of deck houses run out a few feet beyond the aftermost room. Do you notice that?"
"So that your malade imaginaire could have a little sheltered nook to enjoy forty winks in out of the wind?"
"Yes, that was the idea. Very jolly it is too. Here's the promenade, about nine feet broad and smooth as a billiard ball. It continues across the forepart of the library and across the afterpart of the line of deck houses, see? So that there's an oblong track round most of the yacht, covered overhead with a thick awning."
"Ah! I see myself taking exercise there morning, noon and night."
"We all do," said Malcolm.