wasn't mysterious to her, not even now. She was his little old Aunt Jane, and she knew what ailed him was only sorrow, and that bitter anger he was holding leashed and ready. And God knew what he'd been through in the war, besides.
But Fran, bitter and old, missing that something wild and nimble in his spirit, that quicksilver quality. She thought, outraged, He's only twenty-five. She babbled out loud, unhappily, 'I'm not belittling your fatal charm, darling. But it's not a good moment to es-
tablish yourself as Althea's boy friend.'
'Let it go,' said Francis irritably. Then, in a minute, he lifted his head. 'Suppose I were Mathilda's boy friend?'
Jane felt a little shock. 'They say—I mean, there wasn't anyone but Oliver.”
'They're so wrong,' said Francis softly. He kept his head up. She saw his nostrils quiver. 'How old was Mathilda?'
'Twenty- two.'
'That's fine. I think I'll be Mathilda's boy friend, all upset because she's drowned.'
'But Fran-'
'When did she sail on this fatal ship?'
'In January.'
'From New York? Alone?'
'Uh-huh.'
'Then she met me in New York. I'm a new boy friend.'
'But, Fran, she went off with a broken heart. You can't pretend—'
He wasn't listening. He went ahead. 'Was she here in the city long before she sailed? How long, Jane?'
'Three days.'
'All that time?' said Francis, in a pleased way. 'And she was alone?'
'She was alone. Don't you see, it must have been that she ran away from the situation. There was that newly married pair moving in. Althea'd copped off her man. It must have been a hideous blow.'
He didn't say anything. Jane, watching him, suddenly remembered the time he'd gone out and bet his allowance on a horse race, and won enough to buy his mother a wildly extravagant bracelet for Christmas. He had just that crazy gleam, that funny high-sailing
look, as if now he wasn't going to bother to use the ground. He was going to take to the air. His spurning look. He'd get these reckless streaks, as if something in his will, or something mysteriously lucky, or some fantastic kind of foresight, would signal to him. He'd scare everybody to death. Then it would come out all right. This was the old Fran, the one she loved, with that leaping look.
'By gum, why didn't I marry the girl?' he asked, as if this were a reasonable question.
Her heart turned over. 'Marry what girl?'
'Mathilda. Obviously, I married Mathilda.'
'No! Fran!'
'Now, wait. Think about it. Be logical.'
'Logical!' said Jane. 'Oh, gosh! Logical!' She hung on to the table. 'Now, just a min—'
'But that does it! She's the one with the money. See here, Jane, sooner or later won't they have to presume she's not coming back from her watery grave? Ah-ha, but when she married me, you know, she technically got control of her own money. So I'm the guy that'll be right there, asking bright, intelligent questions, when the books are opened.'
Jane stuttered, 'She w-willed it to Grandy.'
'Never mind ' He brushed her off. “I'll fix that. I'm an interested party. That's enough. That'll do it And besides—look, honey. I go up there. Most natural thing in the world. My God, my bride! I'm all upset. I want to be with her nearest and dearest. Don't I? So I talk about her. So I talk. I talk to everybody. I talk to Althea. I'm a tragic figure. Althea's going to be powerful sorry for me' His eyebrows flew up. He looked full of the devil.
'But, Fran-'
'Don't say 'But, Fran.' Ask questions. Be helpful.'
'No, no. Listen.' Jane struck the table with her fist. 'Don't underrate that man! Don't dare! Please don't try anything half-baked. He's too smart, too terribly smart! This isn't any parlor game. You can't just go and tell a plain lie and expect him to swallow it. You said it yourself. Assume he's guilty. Then he's bound to check. He'll be very wary.'
'Let him check,' said Francis coldly. 'Let him be wary.'
Jane closed her eyes. She heard bis voice go on, now quick and excited.
'What you do is, you go back. Send me her handwriting. All you can find. Steal it. Send me pictures of her. Good ones.”
'But, Fran-'
'Got to have them. Think about it.'
'There's a roll,' said Jane slowly, as if he had hypnotized her, 'that Althea had in her camera. She had them developed last week and they all cried over the ones with Mathilda.'
“Those are the ones I want.'
'But, Fran-'
“Don't 'but.''
“Fran, you're crazy!' She opened her eyes.
'Am I?' said Francis quietly. 'O.K. The point is, I intend to get in there and find out what happened to Rosaleen. Because if anybody hurt her, he will get hurt. I don't mind what methods I use, or what trouble I take, or what lies I tell, or bribes I have to pay. If this is the way you get in and find out, then this is the way I go. You can't stop me. I don't think you want to, really. You might as well help, don't you think?'
'I'd h-help,' she stammered. 'But, Fran, Mathilda could not have—'
'You don't understand her psychology,' he said whimsically.
'But, Fran!'
'But what?'
'But everything!' she wailed.
Francis leaned back. He was smiling. She thought,
The April morning was sunny, cool and clear. Down in her stateroom, the girl with the green eyes took a last look at herself in the mirror door. Her old tweed suit was, she thought, respectable enough. She was lucky to have found it, forgotten, in the Bermuda clothes closet. The black shoes weren't quite right, but they would have to do. She had no hat. The scarf she'd knotted around her head like a turban had blown away one day on deck. She wore her gold-brown hair very plain. It was clean and shining. For the first time in her life, she hadn't felt able to spend the money to have her hair done, so she had washed it herself, carefully. A good job, she thought. No gloves. Just this old brown-and-white summer bag. She picked it up.
Her luggage had already gone, such as it was. One nightgown, one toothbrush and a bag of very expensive Dutch chocolates rattling lonesomely in the clumsy suitcase. She'd spent half of what she had left for the chocolates; each one of them was just about worth its weight in gold. Well, but he loved them so. He must have them. It would make him so happy.
She smiled, and saw herself smile in the glass. Yes, she thought, she must remember to smile. Her face had grown thinner. It was bonier than ever now. Better smile. It wouldn't do to look woebegone or exhausted. She wasn't really, except for reasons that had nothing to do with what they would want to know. Not that they wouldn't love to know the real reasons.
She turned for a last look at her stocking seams. She felt very calm. She knew exactly how to behave. She opened the door of her stateroom and walked down the corridor.
An officer spoke to her. 'They're waiting for you.'
'Thank you.'
The officer took her into the room where they were—several men and one girl. Their eyes licked at her.
The officer said, 'This is Miss Mathilda Frazier.'
She said quietly and in a friendly fashion, 'How do you do?'
The cameras popped off like a quick lightning storm. They flashed one after another. Mathilda stood still, her lips curved pleasantly and a little shyly.
Grandy'd told her long ago, 'Tyl, you're an heiress and, for various reasons deeply ingrained in the fundamentals of human nature, my dear, that fact makes what you do several times as interesting as what other girls do. Now, Althea, being penniless, doesn't have quite the same problem. Yet Althea, with her great beauty, has her own trouble.'
She shook off the memory of Grandy, sitting in his favorite chair. Never mind Althea now. The point was, he'd taught her how to handle this. Dear Grandy, he'd taught her so much. Her heart felt warm when she thought of him.
The men of the press took an impression that she was well-bred, that she was shy. One or two of them approved of her ankles. It was the female among them who realized that, although her clothes were dull, this girl was beautifully made and essentially lovely. One
of them suggested that she might like to tell her story in her own way.
'I was reading in my room when the ship caught fire,' she began. 'There was an alarm, of course. I took my coat and went up to my boat station. They lowered the boat almost immediately. It was all very orderly.'
She stopped and smiled the shy little smile. But it was too brief, too bare. They began to question.
'Were you hurt, Miss Frazier?' someone said warmly.
'No, not at all'
'Did you see the
