‘I see you’ve made friends with Madame Cordova,’ said Mr. Van Torp.  ‘I’m very glad, for she’s quite an old friend of mine too.’

Margaret made a slight movement, but said nothing.  Miss More saw her annoyance and intervened by speaking to the financier.

‘We began to fear that we might not see you at all on the voyage,’ she said, in a tone of some concern.  ’I hope you have not been suffering again.’

Margaret wondered whether she meant to ask if he had been sea-sick; what she said sounded like an inquiry about some more or less frequent indisposition, though Mr. Van Torp looked as strong as a ploughman.

In answer to the question he glanced sharply at Miss More, and shook his head.

‘I’ve been too busy to come on deck,’ he said, rather curtly, and he turned to Margaret again.

‘Will you take a little walk with me, Madame Cordova?’ he asked.

Not having any valid excuse for refusing, Margaret smiled, for the first time since she had seen him on deck.

‘I’m so comfortable!’ she answered.  ‘Don’t make me get out of my rug!’

’If you’ll take a little walk with me, I’ll give you a pretty present,’ said Mr. Van Torp playfully.

Margaret thought it best to laugh and shake her head at this singular offer.  Little Ida had been watching them both.

‘You’d better go with him,’ said the child gravely.  ’He makes lovely presents.’

‘Does he?’ Margaret laughed again.

‘"A fortress that parleys, or a woman who listens, is lost,’” put in Griggs, quoting an old French proverb.

‘Then I won’t listen,’ Margaret said.

Mr. Van Torp planted himself more firmly on his sturdy legs, for the ship was rolling a little.

‘I’ll give you a book, Madame Cordova,’ he said.

His habit of constantly repeating the name of the person with whom he was talking irritated her extremely.  She was not smiling when she answered.

‘Thank you.  I have more books than I can possibly read.’

’Yes.  But you have not the one I will give you, and it happens to be the only one you want.’

‘But I don’t want any book at all!  I don’t want to read!’

’Yes, you do, Madame Cordova.  You want to read this one, and it’s the only copy on board, and if you’ll take a little walk with me I’ll give it to you.’

As he spoke he very slowly drew a new book from the depths of the wide pocket in his overcoat, but only far enough to show Margaret the first words of the title, and he kept his aggressive blue eyes fixed on her face.  A faint blush came into her cheeks at once and he let the volume slip back.  Griggs, being on his other side, had not seen it, and it meant nothing to Miss More.  To the latter’s surprise Margaret pushed her heavy rug from her knees and let her feet slip from the chair to the ground.  Her eyes met Griggs’s as she rose, and seeing that his look asked her whether he was to carry out her previous instructions and walk beside her, she shook her head.