Kenyon was good enough to say he was uninjured--that
the chair on which he sat had not the same consideration for my feelings,
and it went down with a crash. I thought Mr. Kenyon should take my chair
in exchange for the one I had the misfortune to break, but Mr. Kenyon
thought otherwise. He said he was a mining engineer, and that he could
not claim to be a very good one if he found any difficulty in mending a
deck-chair. It seems he succeeded in doing so, and that is the whole
history of my introduction to, and my intercourse with, Mr. Kenyon,
Mining Engineer.'
'Most interesting and romantic,' replied the young man; 'and do you think
that your father approves of your picking up indiscriminate acquaintances
in this way?'
Edith, flushing a little at this, said:
'I would not willingly do what my father disapproved of;' then in a lower
voice she added: 'except, perhaps, one thing.'
Her father, who had caught snatches of the conversation, now leaned
across towards his nephew, and said warningly:
'I think Edith is quite capable of judging for herself. This is my
seventh voyage with her, and I have always found such to be the case.
This happens to be your first, and so, were I you, I would not pursue the
subject further.'
The young man was silent, and Edith gave her father a grateful glance.
Thus it was that, while she might not have given a thought to Kenyon, the
remarks which her cousin had made, brought to her mind, when she was
alone, the two young men, and the contrast between them was not at all to
the advantage of her cousin.
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