This paradoxical answer was quite in keeping with her appearance.

'I congratulate you,' I said. 'I see that you are a true English girl, and that a rough sea has no terrors for you!'

'Oh,' said she quickly, 'I'm not afraid of anything; and as for the sea, I love it. Of all amusements I like yachting best.' I could not help laughing a little. Evidently of all the amusements that she was acquainted with yachting might be her favourite one, but a day would come, and perhaps was not far off, when she would know others: and then, yachting. .

However, I considered that it was impossible to continue the conversation without having gained her confidence, and to effect this my best plan was to introduce myself.

You must excuse me,' I said, 'for having taken the liberty of speaking to you, but our presence on the deck here, when everybody else has taken refuge below, seems to indicate that we are intended to know one another. . and, I hope, to appreciate one another. My name is Jack W-, and I am attached to the Foreign Office.'

She gave me a charming little bow, and, at once, by the smile in her eyes, I could see that I had attained my object.

'And my name,' said she, 'is Evelyn H-, and I am on my way to school. I am travelling alone as far as Boulogne but there a French governess will meet me and take me on to Paris.'

Let me here state that I cannot mention her surname nor that of any of the other characters who will appear in this story, which is an absolutely true one in every particular, for some of the characters are well known in society and might be known to some of my readers.

'Oh really?' I exclaimed. “You are on your way to Paris? I am going there too. What bad luck that we can't travel all the way together. But at any rate we can keep one another company till we reach Boulogne. Shall we sit down together in that shelter: we shall be fairly out of the wind there?'