“That question?” he repeated, vaguely. “You mean about the Maine? It was the idlest chance, Duchesse, I assure you. I saw something about it in the paper yesterday and it seemed interesting. But if I had had the slightest idea that the subject was distasteful to you, I would not have dreamed of mentioning it. Even now—I do not understand—”
She interrupted him. All the time he had been speaking she had shown signs of recovery. She was smiling now, faintly and with obvious effort, but still smiling.
“It is altogether my own fault, Baron,” she admitted, graciously. “Please forgive my little fit of emotion. The subject is a very sore one among my countrypeople, and your sudden mention of it upset me. It was very foolish.”
“Duchesse, I was a clumsy idiot!” Peter declared, penitently. “I deserve that you should be unkind to me for the rest of the voyage.”
“I could not afford that,” she answered, forcing another smile. “I am relying too much upon you for companionship. Ah! could I trouble you?” she added. “For the moment I need my maid. She passes there.”
Peter sprang up and called the young woman, who was slowly pacing the deck. He himself did not at once return to his place. He went instead in search of Sogrange, and found him in his stateroom. Sogrange was lying upon a couch, in a silk smoking suit, with a French novel in his hand and an air of contentment which was almost fatuous. He laid down the volume at Peter’s entrance.
“Dear Baron,” he murmured, “why this haste! No one is ever in a hurry upon a steamer. Remember that we can’t possibly get anywhere in less than eight days, and there is no task in the world, nowadays, which cannot be accomplished in that time. To hurry is a needless waste of tissue, and, to a person of my nervous temperament, exceedingly unpleasant.”
Peter sat down on the edge of the bunk.
“I presume you have quite finished?” he said. “If so, listen to me. I am moving in the dark. Is it my fault that I blunder? By the merest accident I have already committed a hideous faux pas. You ought to have warned me.”
“What do you mean?”