"Just watch him. You'll see him slipping back to his room pretty soon. He's no sailor."
"Well," said Fred, "you seem to be a pretty good mariner."
"Yes; if you have any suspicions that I will retreat, just stick to me."
"All right, I'll keep an eye on you, for you are beautiful to look at, if you will pardon the liberty of expression."
"Mr. Fearnot, did you ever see a girl who didn't like such expressions?"
"Yes, I saw one once when she was struggling with an attack of mal de mer, and she had to yield to its effect in the presence of all the crowd, for there was no place for retreat for her. We were returning from Coney Island. The young man who was acting as her escort thought that he would compliment her by mentioning that she was the most beautiful girl on the ship. She thought it was spoken sarcastically, for she couldn't conceive how a seasick girl could be beautiful, and then just at that time she was disgorging the dinner which she had eaten an hour or two before, so she turned on him and gave him a pretty sharp rebuke."
Miss Elon laughed heartily at the story, and said:
"Well, I don't blame her, for a girl thinks at such a time as that she looks as ugly as she feels, even if she don't. Now, Mr. Fearnot," she continued, "will you please go back and bring me another dose of that acid phosphate?"
"Certainly, certainly!" and he hurried back to his cabin and returned with the glass with the phosphate in it. Filling the glass with water, he presented it to her and suggested that she take only half the dose.
"All or nothing," she laughed, and swallowed the contents of the glass.