"Oh!" said Peter, "well, that's a very natural feeling, I'm sure. I can quite understand it!"
"Then you wouldn't mind--you wouldn't be angry if I did?" she said, looking up at him with her great childishly serious eyes.
"My dear child," said Peter, getting more fatherly every moment, "how could I possibly object to your speaking to any lady on board if you want to?"
He would have liked to make one or two exceptions, perhaps; but he thought he had better not.
"I am so glad," she said, "because I did--this very morning. I did so want someone to advise me--to tell me what a girl ought to do, what she would do herself in my place."
"Ah!" said Peter, sympathetically, "it is--er--a difficult position for you, no doubt."
"And for you, too!" she said quickly; "remember that."
"And for me _too_, of course," said Peter, assenting, as he always did now from habit, to anything he did not understand at the moment. "My position might be described as one of--er--difficulty, certainly. And so you asked advice about yours, eh?"
"I couldn't very well help myself," she said. "There was a girl, a little older than I am, perhaps, sitting next to me on deck, and she mentioned your name, and somehow--I hardly know how it came about--but she seemed so kind, and so interested in it all, that--that I believe I told her everything.... You aren't _angry_ with me, are you, Peter?"
She had been making a _confidante_ of Miss Tyrrell! It was awkward, extremely awkward and annoying, if, as he began to fear, her confidences were of a tender character.
"I--I am not exactly angry," he said; "but I do think you might be more careful whom you speak to. What did you tell her?"
"_All!_" she said, with the same little quiver in her underlip he had noticed before.
"That is no answer," said Peter (it certainly was none for him). "Tell me _what_ you said?"
"I--I told her about you, and about me ... and--and about _him!_"
"Oh!" said Peter, "about me, and you, and him? Well, and--and how did she _take_ it?"
"She didn't say very much; she turned very pale. It was rather rough at the time, and I don't think she can be a very good sailor; for before I had even finished she got up and went below, and I haven't seen her since."