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THE CIGARETTE GIRL - The Lion's Share
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"She must be the wife of one of those lords!"
Every detail of her raiment, as she was put at her ease, showed her to be clothed in precisely the manner which Audrey and Miss Ingate thought peeresses always were clothed. Hence, being English, they mingled respect with their solacing pity. Nevertheless, their respect was tempered by a peculiar pride, for both of them, in taking lemonade on the Pullman, had taken therewith a certain preventive or remedy which made them loftily indifferent to the heaving of ships and the eccentricities of the sea. The specific had done all that was claimed for it--which was a great deal--so much so that they felt themselves superwomen among a cargo of flaccid and feeble sub-females. And they grew charmingly conceited.
"Am I in my cabin?" murmured the martyr, about a quarter of an hour after Miss Ingate, having obtained soda water, had administered to her a dose of the miraculous specific.
Her delicious cheeks were now a delicate crimson. But they had been of a delicate crimson throughout.
"No," said Audrey. "You're in ours. Which is yours?"
"It's on the other side of the ship, then. I came out for a little air. But I couldn't get back. I'd just as lief have died as shift from that seat out there by the railings."
Something in the accent, something in those fine English words "lief" and "shift," destroyed in the minds of Audrey and Miss Ingate the agreeable notion that they had a peeress on their hands.
"Is your husband on board?" asked Audrey.
"He just is," was the answer. "He's in our cabin."
"Shall I fetch him?" Miss Ingate suggested. The corners of her lips had begun to fall once more.
"Will you?" said the young woman. "It's Lord Southminster. I'm Lady Southminster."
The two saviours were thrilled. Each felt that she had misinterpreted the accent, and that probably peeresses did habitually use such words as "lief" and "shift." The corners of Miss Ingate's lips rose to their proper position.
"I'll look for the number on the cabin list," said she hastily, and went forth with trembling to summon the peer.
As Audrey, alone in the cabin with Lady Southminster, bent curiously over the prostrate form, Lady Southminster exclaimed with an air of childlike admiration:
"You're real ladies, you are!"
And Audrey felt old and experienced. She decided that Lady Southminster could not be more than seventeen, and it seemed to be about half a century since Audrey was seventeen.
"He can't come," announced Miss Ingate breathlessly, returning to the cabin, and supporting herself against the door as the solid teak sank under her feet. "Oh yes! He's there all right. It was Number 12. I've seen him. I told him, but I don't think he heard me--to understand, that is. If you ask me, he couldn't come if forty wives sent for him."
"Oh, couldn't he!" observed Lady Southminster, sitting up. "Couldn't he!" 
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