The scene, though cheerful, was not lacking in wartime features:  A row of life-boats hung invitingly ready; a gun, highly dramatic in appearance, was mounted astern, with every air of meaning business should the kaiser meddle with us en route.  Down below, the Italians, talking, gesticulating, showing their white teeth in flashing, boyish smiles, were being herded docilely on board, while at intervals one or another of the few promenade-deck passengers appeared.

The first of these, a shrewd-faced, nervous little man, borrowed an unneeded match of me and remarked that it was cold weather for spring.  The next, a good-looking young foreigner,—­a reservist, I surmised, recalled to the Italian colors in this hour of his country’s need,—­rather harrowed my feelings by coming on board with a family party, gray-haired father, anxious mother, slim bride-like wife, and two brothers or cousins, all making pathetic pretense at good cheer.  Soon after came a third man, dark, quiet, watchful-looking, and personable enough, although his shoes were a little too gleamingly polished, his watch and chain a little too luminously golden, the color scheme of his hose and tie selected with almost too much care.

“This,” I reflected resignedly, “is going to be a ghastly trip.  By Jove, here comes another!  Now where have I seen her before?”

The new arrival, as indicated by the pronoun, was a woman; though why one should tempt Providence by traveling on this route at this juncture, I found it hard to guess.  Standing with her back to me, enveloped in a coat of sealskin with a broad collar of darker fur, well gloved, smartly shod, crowned by a fur hat with a gold cockade, she made a delightful picture as she rummaged in a bag which reposed upon a steamer-chair, and which, thus opened, revealed a profusion of gold mountings, bottles and brushes, hand-chased and initialed in an opulent way.

There was a haunting familiarity about her.  She teased my memory as I strolled up the deck.  Then, snapping the bag shut, she turned and straightened, and I recognized the girl to whose door my thief-chase had led me at the St. Ives.

It seemed rather a coincidence my meeting her again.

“I shouldn’t mind talking to you on this trip,” I reflected, mollified.  “The mischief of it is you’ll notice me about as much as you notice the ship’s stokers.  You’re not the sort to scrape acquaintance, or else I miss my shot!”

I did not miss it.  So much was instantly proved.  As I passed her, on the mere chance that she might elect to acknowledge our encounter, I let my gaze impersonally meet hers.  She started slightly.  Evidently she remembered.  But she turned toward the nearest door without a bow.

The dark, too-well-groomed man was emerging as she advanced.  Instead of moving back, he blocked her path, looking—­was it appraisingly, expectantly?—­into her eyes.  There was a pause while she waited rather haughtily for passage; then he effaced himself, and she disappeared.