Mandeville.  Deliver me from transparency.  When a woman takes that guise, and begins to convince me that I can see through her like a ray of light, I must run or be lost.  Transparent women are the truly dangerous.  There was one on ship-board [Mandeville likes to say that; he has just returned from a little tour in Europe, and he quite often begins his remarks with “on the ship going over;” the Young Lady declares that he has a sort of roll in his chair, when he says it, that makes her sea-sick] who was the most innocent, artless, guileless, natural bunch of lace and feathers you ever saw; she was all candor and helplessness and dependence; she sang like a nightingale, and talked like a nun.  There never was such simplicity.  There was n’t a sounding-line on board that would have gone to the bottom of her soulful eyes.  But she managed the captain and all the officers, and controlled the ship as if she had been the helm.  All the passengers were waiting on her, fetching this and that for her comfort, inquiring of her health, talking about her genuineness, and exhibiting as much anxiety to get her ashore in safety, as if she had been about to knight them all and give them a castle apiece when they came to land.

The mistress.  What harm?  It shows what I have always said, that the service of a noble woman is the most ennobling influence for men.

Mandeville.  If she is noble, and not a mere manager.  I watched this woman to see if she would ever do anything for any one else.  She never did.

The fire-tender.  Did you ever see her again?  I presume Mandeville has introduced her here for some purpose.

Mandeville.  No purpose.  But we did see her on the Rhine; she was the most disgusted traveler, and seemed to be in very ill humor with her maid.  I judged that her happiness depended upon establishing controlling relations with all about her.  On this Rhine boat, to be sure, there was reason for disgust.  And that reminds me of a remark that was made.

The young lady.  Oh!

Mandeville.  When we got aboard at Mayence we were conscious of a dreadful odor somewhere; as it was a foggy morning, we could see no cause of it, but concluded it was from something on the wharf.  The fog lifted, and we got under way, but the odor traveled with us, and increased.  We went to every part of the vessel to avoid it, but in vain.  It occasionally reached us in great waves of disagreeableness.  We had heard of the odors of the towns on the Rhine, but we had no idea that the entire stream was infected.  It was intolerable.