'Oh, that! The maid had opened it with water, and was reading when I came. So I read too! You shall find it all well sealed again, have no fear! They all do so.'
'Pleasant journey,' said Schreiermeyer abruptly. 'I'm going ashore.
I'll see you in Paris in three weeks.'
'Read the book,' said Herr Tiefenbach earnestly, as he shook hands.
'It is a deep book.'
'Do not forget me!' cried Stromboli sentimentally, and he kissed
Margaret's gloves several times.
'Good-bye,' said Fräulein Ottilie. 'Every one is sorry when you go!'
Margaret was not a gushing person, but she stooped and kissed the cheerful little woman, and pressed her small hand affectionately.
'And everybody is glad when you come, my dear,' she said.
For Fräulein Ottilie was perhaps the only person in the company whom Cordova really liked, and who did not jar dreadfully on her at one time or another.
Another blast from the horn and they were all gone, leaving her and Griggs standing by the rail on the upper promenade deck. The little party gathered again on the pier when they had crossed the plank, and made farewell signals to the two, and then disappeared. Unconsciously Margaret gave a little sigh of relief, and Griggs noticed it, as he noticed most things, but said nothing.
There was silence for a while, and the gangplank was still in place when the horn blew a third time, longer than before.