“So he says, but I want his company on deck, and not on the steerage deck at that. Have you got anything vacant along my avenue?”
The purser consulted his written list.
“Nobody with him?”
“He’s quite alone.”
“All the larger cabins are taken, but I can give him No. 4390.”
“I suppose, like your steerage, it is comfortable?” said Stranleigh, with a smile.
“It is, yet it’s not a private hotel like your quarters.”
“Oh, he’ll not grumble. Will you send a steward to carry his portmanteau from the number indicated on this steerage ticket to his new room? Meanwhile, I’ll have transferred to him his luggage that I brought from London.”
The purser rapidly wrote out a new ticket, and took the difference in five-pound notes.
“Are you going to your quarters now?” the purser asked.