u? And they expelled you?"

"Suspended me, until they decide. That's why I had to come on this jolly
party."

"You don't like it?"

"Of course, I don't like it. How'd I know whether you'd wake up or not?"

"Did you want me to wake up?" he asked, curiously.

"But, _oui_, aye, _ja_, yes, of course. You don't suppose I want to play
with fat old Brendon, do you? Wally is a fearful bore, so there is only
you."

"Poor little cricket, she wanted a playmate," he teased.

"She did. I can't rub my knees together and make a 'crick,' you know, so
I had to wait until you came to. I'd have pushed you overboard if it
hadn't happened to-day. I'm so full of unused pep, I'm ready to pop!"

"Come on. I'm awake. Now what?"

"Let's warm up," she said, and was up and off down the deck in one
spring. Jerry pursued. She raced around the whole deck twice, then
waited for him to catch up with her.

"Puffing, Jerry? You're getting fat," she jeered.

"You impudent little beggar, I'd like to shake you."

"Try it!"

This might have been called Isabelle's entrance on the scene, because
from that moment on, she took the stage and exerted herself to hold it.
She tantalized Jerry every minute. She took all the privileges of
youthful sixteen, and made frank, outspoken love to him. She never left
him alone with Althea for a moment. She roused in the breast of that
blonde young woman such a fierce hatred that murder would have been a
mild expression of her desires.

Even Mrs. Abercrombie Brendon took a hand, trying first hauteur and
disapproval, descending finally to bribery and entreaty. Max and Wally
laboured with their offspring. She only turned big eyes upon them and
entreated them to tell her what displeased them. She was trying to be a
credit to them, to save them all from complete dissolution through the
boredom that had settled down upon them like a cloud.

"You let Jerry Paxton alone," ordered her mother.

"But he adores me, and he is so bored."

"Conceited jackanapes!" said Mrs. Bryce.

"He'd jump overboard if it wasn't for me. I'm his only salvation from
the wax doll."

Wally laughed and the fight was lost. Mrs. Brendon ordered the captain
to Palm Beach at once, all steam on. As soon as they landed Jerry
prepared for flight. He produced a fictitious telegram calling him at
once to New York.

"Jerry, how can you leave me, in the house of the enemy?" Isabelle
demanded, when she got him alone.

"Hard lines, kid, but I'm