"Obligations be hanged! Think I'd marry a girl like Stella? All she thinks about is her looks. And she can talk down anybody she meets. Nixy, not for yours truly! I pity Sandy, I do!"
"We all do," affirmed a fourth of the group.
"Maybe that's why he's going to France—to escape from her."
"Like as not. If I was tied to a skirt like that I'd want to hike to the North Pole!"
The college boys passed on, out of Belinda's hearing and left the ship. The Red Cross nurse shrank back, her cheeks burning. She had heard every word. She walked on in a more thoughtful mood than ever.
Aunt Roberta always remained in her stateroom, and usually in her berth, until she was "attuned," as she termed it, to the motion of the ship. There was little, anyway, at this sailing, to keep one on deck. The ship was towed out into the stream and started seaward with no band playing and no cheering from the dock. Only the whistled farewells of other craft were as cheerful as usual.
The ship's lower decks were piled tier upon tier with stores, and she was bound for a French port. She would be a fair mark for a German submarine if one crossed her path. Although the Germans were supposedly giving the crews and passengers of merchant ships a chance for their lives before sinking such craft, an experience in an open boat, even in calm, pleasant weather, was not to be looked upon lightly.
Therefore, those who sailed upon the Belle o' Perth when she left the port of New York supposedly had serious reason for making the voyage. Later, however, Belinda discovered among the first cabin group one individual who had come along for the excitement of the trip.
She met this person at dinner on the first evening out. Belinda was alone, Aunt Roberta being served with tea and toast in her room. The first officer, who was a socially inclined soul and an American, could not bear to see so pretty a girl eating her dinner in silence. On the other side of Aunt Roberta's empty chair was a nattily dressed old gentleman, with a great shock of white hair and a moustache equally white. His clothing was blue and of naval cut.
"Miss Melnotte," said the first officer, reading her card, "I want you to know Cap'n Raphael Dexter," and he nodded to the old gentleman. "Now, you be nice to her, Cap'n Raphe. Miss Melnotte's all alone just now."