'Then,' said the lady, 'as I am in the enjoyment of rude health and likely to last for some years yet, I may infer that you know all about me.'
The captain looked grave.
'I know,' he answered, 'just little enough to be able to reply that I know nothing when people do me the honour of inquiring; and just sufficient to feel that your affairs are better left undiscussed by us.'
She nodded her head, and sat looking at her own hands in a dull, apathetic way. Woman-like, she acted in direct opposition to his most obvious hint.
'I suppose,' she murmured, 'that gossips have been thrashing the whole question out with their customary zest.'
'Ceylon is a hot-bed of gossips. Everyone is up in his neighbour's affairs, and a fine voyage in a comfortable steamer is not calculated to still busy tongues!'
She shrugged her shoulders indifferently, and looked up at him with a slight pout of her pretty lips.
'Who cares?' she asked with well-simulated levity. He, however, did not choose to appear as if he were deceived, which simple feat was well within his histrionic capabilities; for his life was one long succession of petty diplomatic efforts.
'I think,' he said coolly, 'that you have done perfectly right in keeping yourself quite apart from the rest of them.' He looked round upon the other passengers, seated or lolling about the deck, with a fatherly tolerance. 'And if I may suggest it, you cannot do better than to continue doing so for the next day or two. Avoid more particularly the older women. The jealousy of a young girl is dangerous, but the repelled patronage of an older woman, bristling with the consciousness of her own wearisome irreproachability, is infinitely more to be feared!'
This remark from the lips of a man who undoubtedly knew more than is usually known of the feminine side of humanity appeared to suggest material for thought to the somewhat shallow brain of his hearer. She dropped the lightly reckless style at once, and the thought that this honest and simple-hearted sailor was in love with her slowly died a natural death. There followed, moreover, upon its demise an uncomfortable suggestion that, although he was probably honest, he was not consequently simple-hearted—that he was, in fact, a match for her, and, knowing it, was not at that moment disposed to measure mental blades with her.