He said hesitantly, ‘You mustn’t blame every man you meet. I know you feel like it. But you must try to understand that what happened was the result of one old man’s lechery, just one old man, and not every man in the world.’

‘All men look at me the same,’ she said, sullenly and softly.

‘Well, they do,’ Collis agreed, ‘but that’s because of the way you dress and the way you act. If you wear your blouse as low as that, and if you smoke that way, and talk so rough, then men are bound to think that you’re easy pickings. I did myself.’

She lifted her head and stared at him defiantly. ‘What do you know? You come from New York. You’re a gentleman.’

‘A poor gentleman.’

She gave him a half-forgiving smile. ‘Not so poor. Not really so poor. And anyway, you’ll make plenty of money in San Francisco.’

‘I hope so.’

There was a short silence, during which the sky lightened surprisingly quickly. A door opened further down the promenade deck, and a sleepy-eyed man in crumpled broadcloth pants, an undershirt, and suspenders came out on deck, and systematically scratched his ribs and yawned at the distant coastline.

‘I’d better get back to my cabin,’ said Collis.

Maria-Mamuska nodded.

Collis waited a little while longer, and then said, ‘What’s going to happen to you? And what about your baby?’

She shrugged. ‘You needn’t worry. It isn’t your problem. If you’re poor, then you must have problems of your own.’

He bit at his thumbnail thoughtfully. ‘I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I guess it’s soft-headed, but who cares. Do you know any places in San Francisco?’

‘I’ve never been there before.’

‘Well, let’s say Montgomery Street. That’s a street that my lady friend mentioned. Her husband’s name is Walter West — have you got that? — and he owns a general store.’

‘Walter West,’ Maria-Mamuska enunciated carefully. ‘Who is Walter West?’

‘That doesn’t matter,’ Collis told her. ‘The important thing is that I’ll meet you outside of Walter West’s store on Montgomery Street three years and some weeks from now, on 18 September, my father’s birthday, at noon. By then you’ll have had your baby, and I’ll know if I’m going to make any money or stay flat broke for the rest of my life. If it looks as though I’ve got some money to spare, well, I’ll give you a little to help you bring up the child. If it doesn’t, I’ll say hello, and that’ll have to be it.’

Maria-Mamuska brushed back her hair. ‘Why should you do this?’ she asked him.

He glanced back at the porthole, still with its drapes drawn, where Hannah had appeared. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘Maybe it’s an act of — I don’t know, defiance.’

‘Defiance? What do you mean? You don’t talk straight.’

He shrugged. ‘I’m not sure. I just get the feeling that once you’re out of step with the world, once you’re an outcast, it takes a hell of a lot of hard work and suffering to make your way back.’