Driven to Bay, Volume II by Florence Marryat

‘Miss Hetherley! ' he exclaimed, in a voice that trembled with nervousness and excitement. ‘Miss Hetherley, will you not speak to me?'

Iris was not unprepared for the meeting, although a moment before she had believed herself to be alone. She had talked the matter over with Maggie, and they had agreed that it was impossible she could avoid him for the whole course of the voyage, and that, sooner or later, Vernon Blythe and she must speak to one another again. Yet what to say to him, or how to explain her presence on board the _Pandora_, she knew not, and her first refuge was in an attempt at denial.