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cabins.
"Who's there?" I inquired I dare say a little shakily.
"Me, miss, Mrs. Harrison. Could I speak to you for one moment?"
Mrs. Harrison was our stewardess. I got down from my berth, leaving the screws on the quilt, and opened the door as quickly as I could.
"Miss Lawrence sends her compliments to you, Miss Forester, but she has forgotten her purse. She can't think where she left it. Will you oblige her with the loan of half a sovereign?"
Mrs. Harrison's face was quite grave, and there was not a twinkle in her eyes, yet I felt that she appreciated the impudence of the request as much as I did. Left her purse behind, and didn't know where? That was pretty thin. To send the stewardess to borrow from me, a complete stranger, half a sovereign that wanted some beating! I do not lend money; in fact, until then nobody had ever asked me to. My impulse was to send Mrs. Harrison empty away. Then I compromised. I sent Miss Lawrence five shillings, which I hoped that I should get back in the morning.
When Mrs. Harrison had gone, I just peeped behind that batten, returning the screws to their places, undressed, and turned in too conscious of the escape I had had to resume my investigations any further. As a rule I sleep lightly; mother will tell you that the slightest sound wakes me up. It must have been the effect of the sea air, because again I slept right through Sadie Lawrence's coming to bed. That the process had not been a noiseless one, the state the cabin was in when I did wake up distinctly suggested. That time she had not only left the door unfastened, she had left it open. Any passer-by, he or she, could have peeped in and seen me in bed. Perhaps Miss Lawrence did not mind making herself a public spectacle; I did.
The way she snored! How I could have slept through the noise she made was a marvel. When I turned out for my bath, a woman came out of the next cabin, stopped me, and said: "Whoever is it making that dreadful noise?"
"Do you mean snoring? That's
