‘I am to be alone?’

’Oh, yes.  There is a cabin for Madame Melmotte and the maid, and a cabin for you.  Everything will be comfortable.  And there is another lady going,—­Mrs Hurtle,—­whom I think you will like.’

‘Has she a husband?’

‘Not going with us,’ said Mr Fisker evasively.

‘But she has one?’

’Well, yes;—­but you had better not mention him.  He is not exactly all that a husband should be.’

’Did she not come over here to marry some one else?’—­For Marie in the days of her sweet intimacy with Sir Felix Carbury had heard something of Mrs Hurtle’s story.

’There is a story, and I dare say I shall tell you all...