Yes--he must stop off at Paris for a couple of days and buy his sister and mother something worth bringing home. His heart grew warm as he pictured their happy eyes and heard their pleased exclamations. And his father! Won’t the governor be proud of the reports he was bringing back. Figures don’t lie, his father used to say. And what else should he bring him? Yes--he would have to go to London, too.
He hoped the fine old Nubian sarcophagus which he had shipped by stealth from Assab by the old rascal Ben Bandar (the old chap surely dealt in slaves on the sly) on a Greek sailing vessel had reached New York safely. What would his neighbor, Sir Balingbroke, have said if he knew that the Egyptian custom-house servants were the same old grafters they had been before Alexandria was bombarded and the Khedive all powerful on the Nile?
Almost with a start he awoke to his surroundings, mumbling some words of apology for his absent-mindedness. Mrs. Fitzhugh had addressed some remarks to him--Miss Muriel’s eyes were dancing as she smiled wickedly at him. Mrs. Fitzhugh haughtily forgave him.
This meeting at the table was the type of many others which took place during the next days, varied with some small talk on deck, and broken by some lengthier and more interesting conversations in the smoking room.
Whether the ladies approved or not, the shady depths of the small “smoker” on the upper deck proved a veritable Mecca for all the men. Here one always was pretty sure to find some of the passengers enjoying their cigars or cigarettes or even pipes, chatting of trade and drinks, horses and games, politics and policies.
Here was to be found the man who could foretell the number of knots the boat would cover that day; who knew the hour they would sight the African shore again. Another would descant of the ever-inspiring topic--the great Canal--the time it took to go through it, the money a boat had to pay, the advantages of being on a British boat and so on.
Here also it was where Jones told of Smith’s affairs while the latter was with the ladies, where Smith in turn was telling what Jones had been doing in India when the last-named gentleman had to obey the call of his better half and absent himself from the round table. It was not long, therefore, before everyone knew all about everybody else; or, at least, thought they did.