16/17 The captain saw his way to a joke. "If it is, as commander of the Arctic expedition, I have a particular request to make. Will the Second Sight oblige me by seeing the shortest way to the Northwest Passage, before we leave England ?" Mrs.Crayford declined to humor the joke. "If you will excuse my leaving you," she said quietly, "I will try and find out what is the matter with Miss Burnham." At the entrance to the conservatory, Mrs.Crayford encountered her husband. The lieutenant was of middle age, tall and comely. |