"Oh, of course, that is very simple. Mr. Traill was awaiting your arrival in Southampton, thinking to take you by surprise no doubt. That is sure to be the explanation. What a shock the first telegram must have given him!"
"How did he ascertain that his nephew and I were alive?"
"The very first thing father did was to telegraph the names of all the survivors. I know that is so because I saw the message."
"Ah. He is a man of method, I suppose. You are proud of him, I heard you say."
"I think there is no one like him in all the world. We are so happy at home that sometimes I fear it cannot last. Yet, thank God, there is no excuse for such night-mare terrors."
Mrs. Vansittart cooed in her gentle way.
"Indeed, you have my earnest good wishes in that respect," she said. "Do we not owe our lives to you? That is an excellent reason for gratitude, if a selfish one. But, some day soon, you will be getting married and leaving the parental roof."
"I do not wish to die an old maid," laughed Constance, "yet I have not discovered a better name than my own up to the present."
She fancied that Mrs. Vansittart winced a little at this remark. Deeming her visitor to be a bundle of nerves, she jumped to the conclusion that the other woman read into the words some far-fetched disparagement of her own approaching marriage.
"Of course," she continued, affably tactful, "I will hold another view when the right man asks me."