Vision House

								

be occupied. They had observed, also, that corresponding places at the
captain's table were vacant. There were three chairs together on deck,
and in the dining-saloon, but the third did not count with the public.
It was that of a mere chaperon--The Girl's mother. She was not the third
of the Three Thrilling Passengers. That person happened to be a man, and
he had neither chair nor label. If he had eaten a meal outside his cabin
he had somehow passed unrecognised.
The stewards, questioned, said that John Garth had not applied for a
seat at table. Yes, certainly, one had been assigned to him, next Mrs.
Sorel, she being in the place of honour on the right of the
Britannia's captain. In this position Garth would have faced Lord
Severance, and sat diagonally opposite Miss Sorel, who was on the
captain's left. But the favoured man had ignored his privilege. It was
understood that he preferred snatching vague sandwiches and glasses of
beer at odd hours in the smoking-room, or on deck; therefore it would be
hard to identify him. Meanwhile, however, celebrity seekers gathered
near those three chairs on the sunny port side of A deck.
By ten o'clock the crowd had thickened; but it was not till close on
eleven that a tall figure in uniform, preceded by a steward with rugs,
sat down in the chair ticketed "Major the Earl of Severance."
Many Americans were on board, homeward bound after months of Red Cross
and other war work, and they knew in their hearts, no doubt, that
titles, once valued by snobs, were absolutely out-of-date in this
newly-democratised world. Nevertheless, they threw glances at Lord
Severance. Their glances would not have been wasted on a mere every-day
male. Of course, their excuse might have been that they'd prefer
glancing at their own American Johnny Garth, who was as much a major as
Lord Severance, and, being a V.C. (the one and only American V.C.),
twice as much a man for them.
But then Garth wasn't in sight, and Severance was. Besides, the chair
between Lord Severance's and Mrs. Sorel's was ticketed "Miss Marise
Sorel." Nobody could deny that Miss Sorel was worth flocking to gaze at,
had Severance not existed.
Thousands, hundred of thousands, of men and women paid good money to
gaze at her in theatres. Here she could be seen free of charge. But was
she coming out? the deck pilgrims wondered. And Lord Severance had an
air of wondering, too. He held a book in his hand; but his eyes were
often on the nearest door.
They were strikingly fine eyes, and Lord Severance was in appearance a
striking man. "Stunning" was an adjective used by some American
promenaders. They remarked, too, that he "wasn't a typical Englishman.
You'd think he was Spanish or something."
He was not Spanish, but half of him was not English; the "something" was
Greek. His mother had been a Greek heiress and beauty, but her money and
looks had been lost before she died. Most valuable things were lost