'I declared my intention of unravelling the mystery, and I mean to do it.' 'I hope you are not too inquisitive ?' 'Of course she likes to have some one to whom she can talk.

And what can people talk about on board ship except themselves?
A woman who has a mystery always likes to have it unravelled.

What else is the good of a mystery ?' He was thick-skinned and irrepressible, but Caldigate endeavoured to show his displeasure.

He felt that the poor woman was in coarse hands; and he thought that, had matters gone otherwise, he might have accepted, in a more delicate manner, so much confidence as she chose to vouchsafe.
So it was when they had been a fortnight at sea.

They had left home in mid-winter; but now they were in the tropics, near the line, and everything was sultry, sleepy, and warm.