“C. Q.”; or, In the Wireless House
of mental foot-note to the paragraph of her verbal retort.
But the Captain besides being an Englishman, was the czar of his ship, and more than usually obstinate. Besides, he regarded all women as having considerably less intelligence than dogs,—and in his experience the better looking they happened to be the greater fools they were apt to prove. And now having the chance to go down into history as a man of marvelous perspicacity, he swept Lily Trevelyan aside and classed her brutally with all the rest of her sex so far as the matter of brains was concerned.
“I can’t help that,” he answered, calm in the confidence of his own superiority of intellect; “that ’s our man. When you know more about the case you ’ll probably remember him!—even if you don’t now.”
Lily bit her lip. Old Purple Nose was not such an ass as she had always taken him for. The game was up. There was nothing she could do now but play for time, and so far as possible prevent Cosmo’s immediate arrest and public disgrace. A wild scheme of hiding him in some nook or closet on the ship and cutting163
