The lady had a very quiet healthy face and smooth brown hair, and was simply and sensibly dressed.  Margaret at once decided that she was not the child’s mother, nor an elder sister, but some one who had charge of her, though not exactly a governess.  The child was about nine years old; she had a quantity of golden hair that waved naturally, and a spiritual face with deep violet eyes, a broad white forehead and a pathetic little mouth.

She examined each picture, and then looked up quickly at the lady, keeping her wide eyes fixed on the latter’s face with an expression of watchful interest.  The lady explained each picture to her, but in such a soft whisper that Margaret could not hear a sound.  Yet the child evidently understood every word easily.  It was natural to suppose that the lady spoke under her breath in order not to disturb Margaret while she was asleep.

‘It is very kind of you to whisper,’ said the Primadonna graciously, ‘but I am awake now.’

The lady turned with a pleasant smile.

‘Thank you,’ she answered.

The child did not notice Margaret’s little speech, but looked up from the book for the explanation of the next picture.

’It is the inside of the Colosseum in Rome, and you will see it before long,’ said the lady very distinctly.  ’I have told you how the gladiators fought there, and how Saint Ignatius was sent all the way from Antioch to be devoured by lions there, like many other martyrs.’

The little girl watched her face intently, nodded gravely, and looked down at the picture again, but said nothing.  The lady turned to Margaret.

‘She was born deaf and dumb,’ she said quietly, ’but I have taught her to understand from the lips, and she can already speak quite well.  She is very clever.’

‘Poor little thing!’ Margaret looked at the girl with increasing interest.  ‘Such a little beauty, too!  What is her name?’

‘Ida—­’

The child had turned over the pages to another picture, and now looked up for the explanation of it.  Griggs had finished his cigar and came and sat down on Margaret’s other side.

CHAPTER III

The Leofric was three days out, and therefore half-way over the ocean, for she was a fast boat, but so far Griggs had not been called upon to hinder Mr. Van Torp from annoying Margaret.  Mr. Van Torp had not been on deck; in fact, he had not been seen at all since he had disappeared into his cabin a quarter of an hour before the steamer had left the pier.  There was a good deal of curiosity about him amongst the passengers, as there would have been about the famous Primadonna if she had not come punctually to every meal, and if she had not been equally regular in spending a certain number of hours on deck every day.