“Ah she’s afraid,” said my implacable neighbour.

“Afraid of what?”

“Well, that we’ll tell tales when we get there.”

“Whom do you mean by ‘we’?”

“Well, there are plenty—on a ship like this.”

“Then I think,” I returned, “we won’t.”

“Maybe we won’t have the chance,” said the dreadful little woman.

“Oh at that moment”—I spoke from a full experience—“universal geniality reigns.”

Mrs. Peck however knew little of any such law. “I guess she’s afraid all the same.”

“So much the better!”