Anyhow, if she attracts attention she ought to be all the more careful
what she does. You had better tell her that."
"Oh it's none of my business!" I easily made out, leaving the terrible
little woman and going above. This profession, I grant, was not
perfectly attuned to my real idea, or rather my real idea was not quite
in harmony with my profession. The very first thing I did on reaching
the deck was to notice that Miss Mavis was pacing it on Jasper
Nettlepoint's arm and that whatever beauty she might have lost, according
to Mrs. Peck's insinuation, she still kept enough to make one's eyes
follow her. She had put on a crimson hood, which was very becoming to
her and which she wore for the rest of the voyage. She walked very well,
with long steps, and I remember that at this moment the sea had a gentle
evening swell which made the great ship dip slowly, rhythmically, giving
a movement that was graceful to graceful pedestrians and a more awkward
one to the awkward. It was the loveliest hour of a fine day, the clear
early evening, with the glow of the sunset in the air and a purple colour
on the deep. It was always present to me that so the waters ploughed by
the Homeric heroes must have looked. I became conscious on this
particular occasion moreover that Grace Mavis would for the rest of the
voyage be the most visible thing in one's range, the figure that would
count most in the composition of groups.
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