As soon as he had
swallowed it, he went on, "That's the thing a man loves in a woman--a
_real_ man, that is! 'Just like the ivy, I cling to thee' should be a
woman's motto, a true woman's motto. A woman's weakness, her trust in
man is her most womanly characteristic. It appeals to all that is best
and chivalrous in a man."
A fragile voice at his elbow said, "Mistah Petahs," and he turned
hurriedly towards it. Marcella said, "Pooh!" loudly and very rudely and
turned to Jimmy.
"Do you like cake?" she asked.
"Rather! Gran gives me cake."
"Well, you come with me into my little house after tea and we'll have
some. What number is your little house?"
"Fifteen."
"Mine is Number 9 so we are not very far away."
She looked round several times for Louis Farne, wondering if he would
consider it beneath his dignity to have his meals with the steerage
people, but could not see him. Even after she and Jimmy had explored her
cabin, eaten some cake and walked several times up and down the deck
talking, while the wind blew keenly in their faces, she saw nothing of
him and there was dead silence in his cabin. Her deck-chair, she
noticed, was where she had seen it put among a pile of others; later in
the day Knollys came along and stencilled her initials.
"If you don't have your name on, some of these blooming emigrants will
pinch it, or the deck-hands will hide it till we're a few days out and
sell it to someone else.
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