son stooped, and picking up a flat stone from the little
beach on which they were standing, he tossed it across the river.

"Five skips," said he, lightly, as he turned away.

"Hold on a minute," said Neal. "Your offer is very kind, but you may be
pretty sure that I'll pay you as soon as I can. I've no wish to be under
obligations to you any longer than is necessary."

"As you like," returned Bronson, with a shrug. "I only thought it might
ease your mind to know that there's no actual hurry. Ah, Miss Franklin,"
as Cynthia drew near, "can't I persuade you to go out on the river with
me?"

"I am afraid not. I should think that you hadn't paddled a great deal,
as I noticed that you took your ease coming up."

"Miss Franklin, I never should have imagined that you were timid on the
water. How little one can tell!"

"I am not a bit timid, but I don't care to be upset."

"Upset!" laughed Bronson. "Why, I've been upset a dozen times. In such a
shallow ditch as this it wouldn't make much difference, as long as we're
suitably dressed."

Cynthia looked at him slowly, criticisingly, scornfully. Then she said:

"I should think bathing clothes were the only things suitable for
upsetting. And the Charles River isn't a ditch. Of course you didn't
know, and we can pardon the ignorant a good deal."

Bronson turned away and left them.

"That last was a scorcher," chuckled Neal, who had been listening
attentively. "If there is one thing Bronson hates above another, it is
to be thought not to 'know it all,' and he caught on to what you meant."

Cynthia, however, felt a little remorseful. She was quite sure that she
had been rude. Bronson was a stranger, and should have been treated with
the politeness due to such. But then he was Neil's enemy, and Cynthia
could never be anything but loyal to Neal. Thus she soothed her
conscience.

When luncheon had been cleared away and the baskets packed to go home,
Bronson asked Edith if she would go out with him on the river.

"Just for a little paddle, Miss Franklin," he said. "Do come!"

Cynthia heard him, and she frowned and shook her head vigorously at her
sister, hoping that she would not go, but Edith had no intention of
declining the invitation. She said yes, with one of her prettiest
smiles, and accompanied Bronson to the place where the canoes were drawn
up on the bank.

"I suppose it doesn't make any difference which one I take," he said,
and, either by accident or design, he