“I thought perhaps you might feel some hesitation in forcing yourself in where you were so evidently not wanted?”
The hero-worshipper in Buel withered, and the natural Englishman asserted itself.
“I have exactly the same right in this room that you have. I claim no privilege which I have not paid for.”
“Do you wish to suggest that I have made such a claim?”
“I suggest nothing; I state it. You have made such a claim, and in a most offensive manner.”
“Do you understand the meaning of the language you are using, sir? You are calling me a liar.”
“You put it very tersely, Mr. Hodden. Thank you. Now, if you venture to address me again during this voyage, I shall be obliged if you keep a civil tongue in your head.”
“Good heavens! You talk of civility?” cried the astonished man, aghast.
His room-mate went to the upper deck. In the next state-room pretty Miss Carrie Jessop clapped her small hands silently together. The construction of staterooms is such that every word uttered in one above the breath is audible in the next room; Miss Jessop could not help hearing the whole controversy, from the time the steward was ordered so curtly to remove the portmanteau, until the culmination of the discussion and the evident defeat of Mr. Hodden. Her sympathy was all with the other fellow, at that moment unknown, but a sly peep past the edge of the scarcely opened door told her that the unnamed party in the quarrel was the awkward young man who had found her book. She wondered if the Hodden mentioned could possibly be the author, and, with a woman’s inconsistency, felt sure that she would detest the story, as if the personality of the writer had anything whatever to do with his work. She took down the parcel from the shelf and undid the string. Her eyes opened wide as she looked at the title.
“Well I never!” she gasped. “If I haven’t robbed that poor, innocent young man of a book he bought for himself! Attempted eviction by his room-mate, and bold highway robbery by an unknown woman! No, it’s worse than that; it’s piracy, for it happened on the high seas.” And the girl laughed softly to herself.