“So this is the end,” he repeated.

“You had better go below and ask your steward to give you some more butter.”

He laughed bitterly.

“Well, I might have expected it. I might have known what would happen! Eustace warned me. Eustace was right. He knows women—as I do now. Women! What mighty ills have not been done by woman? Who was’t betrayed the what’s-its-name? A woman! Who lost ... lost ... who lost ... who—er—and so on? A woman.... So all is over! There is nothing to be said but good-bye?”

“No.”

“Good-bye, then, Miss Bennett!”

“Good-bye,” said Billie sadly. “I—I’m sorry.”

“Don’t mention it!”

“You do understand, don’t you?”

“You have made everything perfectly clear.”