“Child is my surname, and it’s not polite to call me by it.”  She brought him to his bearings by suddenly “frivolling” again.  “They call militant suffragettes and housemaids sent to prison for stealing their kind mistresses’ jewels by their surnames.  I’m not a militant; and I’ve not been a housemaid yet, though I may be, if New York isn’t kinder to me than London.”

“I hope it will be—­kind in just the right way!”

“My friend who gave me the two letters of introduction says it will:  that Americans love English girls, if they have the courage to come over.  She says there are heaps more chances as well as heaps more room for us in that country than there are at home.”

“That’s true, but—–­”

“Please don’t discourage me!”

“Not on your life!  Only—–­”

“‘Only’ is as bad a word as ‘but.’  I’ve got a letter of introduction to the editor of a New York paper, To-day and To-morrow, and one to the organist of a Higher Thought church.  Maud Ellis says they’re both splendid men and interested in women’s progress.  Something good ought to come from one or the other.  Getting this chance of my passage free seems a happy omen, as if I were meant to take this great adventure.  I’m not one bit afraid.  I feel boiling with courage—­except when the ship pitches and rolls at the same time.”

“That’s right.  You’re bound to make good, of course.  I wouldn’t discourage you for the world.  All I meant to say was that I’d like you to think of me as a friend.  I don’t want to lose sight of you when we land.  I might be able to help in some way or other or—­my family might.  Before we get off the ship I’ll introduce you and my sister to each other.”

“Oh, thank you!  You’re very kind,” the banished dryad said for the third or fourth time.  “But I should be sorry to trouble Miss Rolls.  She wouldn’t—–­”

“Yes, she would,” insisted Peter.  “She’ll be awfully interested when I tell her about you, Miss Child, and very pleased to know you.”

Win was silenced, though not convinced.  It is not safe for a brother to judge his sister by himself.

CHAPTER IV

THE KINDNESS OF MISS ROLLS

Peter found it not so easy as he had expected to snatch an opportunity of interesting Ena in Miss Child.  His sister was even more than ordinarily interested in her own affairs, which had reached a critical stage, and if Peter, having run her to earth in her cabin, attempted to talk of any one save Ena Rolls or Lord Raygan her eyes became like shut windows.  He could almost see her soul turning its back and walking away behind the panes of opaque gray glass.

There had been another evening prowl with the young female panther before the evasive chance was grasped, and the storm-tossed, overdue Monarchic hoped to dock within eighteen hours.

Things were growing desperate for Peter.  He was not, of course, in love with the “queer, arresting face,” but he could not bear to think of its arriving alone and unprotected in New York.  Something must be done, and he resorted to bribery.