Chris came towards them with a batch of newspapers in his hands. He looked at his wife with faint embarrassment.
"Early birds!" he said, and then, as Feathers moved away. "Is your head better, Marie Celeste?"
She smiled nervously.
"Oh, yes, it's quite gone! I got up early and had a long walk along the sands, and I met Mr. Dakers and he came back with me."
"Call him 'Feathers,'" said Chris. "Everybody does."
"Do they? But I hardly know him!"
"You soon will." He looked at her doubtfully. "Do you think you will manage to have a good time here, Marie?"
35 "Oh, yes, with . . . " "With you," she had been going to add, but stopped. She felt instinctively that she would not be allowed to have much of her husband's undivided attention. There were so many people in the hotel who were friends of his.
"There is a Mrs. Heriot here who knows you," she said, more for something to say than for any other reason, and she was surprised at the way Chris suddenly flushed.
"Yes, I know," he said. "I saw her last night."