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position as head of the litt l e world of his ship. It seemed natural that a man of hi s sort would outgrow emotionalism, but it was all wrong that mockery and sarcasm should be permitted to take its place. Men of the sea married and had families; they were kindly and had pictures of their wives and children in their cabins. No one had told her that Captain Kennard was unmarried, but she knew it intuitively; knew, too, that he had no time for the tender type of woman, no time for love.
    Lisa pulled up in her thoughts. The Captain’s private life was no concern of hers.
    She wandered slowly up the deck, out of the brilliantly-lit section near the lounge into the region of the bows. Now, the strong headwind whipped at her short hair and sent delightful shivers across her shoulders. She didn ’t hear a step behind her, but the wind subtracted nothing from the firm voice.
    “I thought a butterfly had lost its way and settled on deck for a breather. You look as if the breeze could easily lift you over the side.”
    Her heart distinctly missed three beats, then hurried to make up for the loss. “I’m quite a solid person, really more so than you think, Captain.”
    He came beside her with his hands in his pockets, his square, disciplined shoulders level with her eyes. “I shan’t believe that without proof,” he said. “Has Jeremy forsaken you?”
    Something stirred within Lisa, something which had in it only a small spark of hostility towards this man; for the rest it was an uneasy complexity of sensations, and completely incomprehensible. “You meant him to, didn’t you?” she asked. “You set out to show me that shipboard affairs are fleeting, that he could easily be diverted to other channels.”
    “Clever child. But don’t worry about losing Jeremy. We have several more like him, and you may as well lend your sympathetic ear to a different story now and then. They’re apt to become awfully boring otherwise.”
    “It’s kind of you to take such a paternal interest,” she said demurely. “Is that part of the ship’s service?”
    “Not exactly. Normally we allow young things to break their hearts without interfering, but y ou strike me as having fewer defences than most, and possibly your heart is correspondingly fragile.” He shrugged away the subject. “Seeing that this is your first trip I expect you’re looking forward to the Canaries?”
    “Yes, I am. When do we reach Las Palmas?”
    “On Tuesday—probably early in the afternoon. If you’re keen to look over the place you’d better go for one of the conducted tours. The purser will tell you all about them; in fact, he might be pleased to take you himself. I believe he has a way with the ladies.”
    She gave him a curious, slanting glance. “Do you allow that, on your ship?”
    “Why not? The purser is entitled to relaxation, and the merchant navy is always accommodating.” On the same slightly jeering note he added, “Even the pimply purser’s clerk has more about him than the Jeremy Carnes of this world. Young as he is, he’s been places and seen things.”
    “And you’ve seen so much more,” she said steadily. “I daresay that’s why you make people like me feel awfully insignificant.”
    “I was referring to men,” he told her, a trifle brusquely. “What one approves in a man one often condemns in a woman. After all, the sexes haven’t everything in common.”
    Defending her contemporaries rather hotly, Lisa said, “My generation of women has had to be self-reliant. Even you of the navy were thankful for the regiments of women during the war.”
    “You’re mixing your services,” he mentioned kindly. “But never mind—you’re well intentioned, and I do like to hear a girl stick up for her sisters. To ease your mind, I’ve the utmost respect for a woman who follows a career. I’d even go so far as to say they make the best wives, too.”
    For some reason Lisa found this unpalatable. She let a minute or two elapse while