A Touch of Miss Mint

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When the scheduled sailing of the cruise ship Margaretta from Port Everglades, Florida, was delayed a few hours, Miss Isobel Mint, one of the first aboard, posted herself in utmost comfort where she could watch the arrivals. As a cruise veteran she accepted the statistical reality that, among the three hundred and some passengers, there might be one or two capable of civilized conversation.

She had no doubt of her ability to single those few out at twenty paces. Instantaneous character analysis, Miss Mint believed, was a facility acquired only by veteran police officers and by maiden ladies who had spent their productive years operating fashionable schools for young ladies. Only these two professions were privileged to learn the depths of deceit, misdirection and cunning of which the human spirit was capable.

After her retirement, predated by an excellent investment program, Isobel Mint had cruised frequently for ten years, spurred by curiosities which knew no restraint. As a realist she accepted the fact that she looked rather like a very tall, thin, myopic rabbit. But she also sensed that kindred souls, whose minds also had some sting and flexibility, soon forgot to be depressed by her appearance.

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