Grace looked eagerly among the impressed spectators for Henry Veath.  Somehow she longed for him to see all this beauty that had given her so much pleasure.  He was not there and she was conscious of a guilty depression.  She was sitting with Hugh and Lady Huntingford when, long afterward, Veath approached.

“I’d like a word with you, Hugh,” he said after the greetings, “when the ladies have gone below.”

“It is getting late and I am really very tired,” said Grace.  It was quite dark, or they could have seen that her face was pale and full of concern.  She knew instinctively what it was that Veath wanted to say to Hugh.  Then she did something she had never done before in the presence of another.  She walked quickly to Hugh’s side, bent over and kissed his lips, almost as he gasped in astonishment.

“Good-night, dear,” she said, quite audibly, and was gone with Lady Huntingford.  The astounded lover was some time in recovering from the surprise inspired by her unexpected act.  It was the first time she had ever been sisterly in that fashion before the eyes of others.

“I hope I have said nothing to offend them,” said Veath miserably.  “Was I too abrupt?”

“Not in the least.  They’ve seen enough for one night anyhow, and I guess they were only waiting for an excuse to go below,” replied Hugh.  To himself he said, “I wonder what the dickens Grace did that for?  And why was Lady Huntingford so willing to leave?”

Veath sat nervously wriggling his thumbs, plainly ill at ease.  His jaw was set, however, and there was a look in his eyes which signified a determination to brave it out.

“You know me pretty well by this time, Hugh,” he said.  Hugh awoke from his abstraction and displayed immediate interest.  “You know that I am straightforward and honest, if nothing else.  There is also in my make-up a pride which you may never have observed or suspected, and it is of this that I want to speak before attempting to say something which will depend altogether upon the way you receive the introduction.”

“Go ahead, Henry.  You’re serious to-night, and I can see that something heavy is upon your mind.”

“It is a very serious matter, I can assure you.  Well, as you perhaps know from my remarks or allusions on previous occasions, I am a poor devil.  I have nothing on earth but the salary I can earn, and you can guess what that will amount to in Manila.  My father educated me as best he could, and I worked my way through college after he had given me to understand that he was unable to send me there himself.  When I was graduated, I accepted a position with a big firm in its engineering service.  Within a year I was notified that I could have a five months’ lay-off, as they call it.  At the end of that period, if matters improved, I was to have my place back.  Out of my wages I saved a couple of hundred dollars, but it dwindled as I drifted through weeks of idleness.