He asked her if she would not like to go over to Hoboken and look at one of the Hanseatic League steamers, some day; and she refused.

When he sent the next day and got a permit to see the boat; she consented to go.
III.
He was one of those men who live from the inside outward; he often took a hint for his actions from his fancies; and now because he had fancied some people going to look at steamers on Sundays, he chose the next Sunday himself for their visit to the Hanseatic boat at Hoboken.

To be sure it was a leisure day with him, but he might have taken the afternoon of any other day, for that matter, and it was really that invisible thread of association which drew him.
The Colmannia had been in long enough to have made her toilet for the outward voyage, and was looking her best.

She was tipped and edged with shining brass, without and within, and was red-carpeted and white-painted as only a ship knows how to be.

A little uniformed steward ran before the visitors, and showed them through the dim white corridors into typical state-rooms on the different decks; and then let them verify their first impression of the grandeur of the dining-saloon, and the luxury of the ladies' parlor and music-room.