"I decline to take it back. And where have you been, all the
morning?"
"Packing my steamer trunk. I have been on deck for nearly an hour,
though."
"I'm sorry I missed so much of the time. I don't see why I didn't
see you," he said regretfully. "I was over there by the rail with
Carew and a lot of the other fellows, watching the town show up. It
was mighty interesting, too, this getting one's first glimpse of a
new corner of the earth."
Most men would have seemed penitent over their absorption in other
things. Weldon merely acknowledged it as a matter of course, and
allowed the girl to draw her own conclusions. She drew them
accordingly. At first, they antagonized her. Later on, she admitted
their justice. Meanwhile, she kept her momentary antagonism quite to
herself, as she looked up into the face of her companion, an
earnest, manly face, in spite of its boyish outlines.
"It is hard for me to realize that you are a stranger here," she
answered him. "All the way out, you have given the impression of
having made the voyage any number of times."
"In what way?"
"In the way of getting what you wish in an utterly matter-of-course
fashion.
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