But, for all the assurance of illness, she went hastily toward the others and greeted them with almost hysterical lightness.
Leith looked after her in some surprise, then an indulgent smile flitted over his handsome mouth.
"Poor little girl!" he murmured. "She is trying to be so loyal to Olney, and Heaven knows I admire her for it! Perhaps I should be less generous if I were not so sure that she never loved him. God bless her, my beautiful one!"
He went below and gave the order to the captain, then returned to his guests on deck.
The wind had grown very fresh, with the usual variableness of late March, and they soon found it necessary to go below; but, even there the greater part of their pleasure was over, for the yacht was pitching considerably as the force of the wind and waves increased.
Leith observed that Carlita was nervous almost to the border of hysteria; and to cover her condition from the others, he sat down to the piano and tried to play; but the effort met with no great degree of success, and he turned upon the stool and monopolized the conversation for a time.
He observed, too, that a sort of constrained silence had fallen upon Dudley Maltby, and that he looked toward Jessica with a curious expression, which faltered and fell as her eyes were cast in his direction.
"Halloo!" muttered Leith, below his breath. "Has that poor little devil been getting his wings singed? I wonder what the little Chalmers is up to now? Poor Dud! He is really too good a fellow to get under that domination. I wish to the Lord I had not asked him."
And then before his soliloquy was ended, he heard young Maltby say to her softly:
"Come into the library. There is a book I want to show you."