The weather door of the smoking-room had been left open to the North Atlantic fog as the big liner rolled and lifted whistling to warn the fishing-fleet.
"That Cheyne boy's the biggest nuisance aboard" said a man in a frieze overcoat shutting the door with a bang. "He isn't wanted here. He's too fresh."
A white-haired German reached for a sandwich and grunted between bites: "I know der breed. Ameriga is full of dot kind. I dell you you should imbort ropes' ends free under your dariff."
"Pshaw! There isn't any real harm to him. He's more to be pitied than anything" a man from New York drawled as he lay at full length along the cushions under the wet skylight. "They've dragged him around from hotel to hotel ever since he was a kid. I was talking to his mother this morning. She's a lovely lady but she don't pretend to manage him. He's going to Europe to finish his education."