"Shall I tell him all about it?" asked he in troubled tones.
"Then I should not be able to look him in the face. Dear me, elopements have their drawbacks, haven't they?"
Other passengers joined them, Veath and Lady Huntingford among them. In the group were Captain Shadburn, Mr. and Mrs. Evarts, Mr. Higsworth and his daughter Rosella, Lieutenant Hamilton--a dashing young fellow who was an old and particularly good friend of Lady Huntingford. Hugh noted, with strange satisfaction, that Hamilton seemed unusually devoted to Miss Higsworth. In a most casual manner he took his stand at the rail beside her Ladyship, who had coaxed Captain Shadburn to tell them his story of the great typhoon.
Presently, a chance came to address her.
"Grace tells me that your name is an odd one, for a girl--woman, I mean--Tennyson. Were you named for the poet?"
"Yes. My father knew him well. Odd, isn't it? My friends call me Lady Tennys. By the way, you have not told Grace what I told you last night on deck, have you?" she asked.
"I should say not. Does she suspect that you know her secret and mine?" he asked in return.
"She does not dream that I know. Ah, I believe I am beginning to learn what love is. I worship your sweetheart, Hugh Ridgeway."
"If you could love as she loves me, Lady Huntingford, you might know what love really is."
"What a strange thing it must be that you and she can know it and I cannot," she mused, looking wistfully at the land afar off.