s--a hint, perchance, of what was to come by and by, as a gay waltz
strain sometimes dips into real life, and makes one look inward for a
moment.

The house did not invite me just at this time, and the elements did; at
least I felt that rising within me which tempted me forth to have a bout
with them.

I was walking at a goodly pace along the Boulevard--for I love the lake
in all its moods--when two men with anxious faces overtook, and hurried
past me.

"There's been a wreck, miss," one of them--a man I knew--called back.

I quickened my pace, trying to peer through the sullen fog, as I ran.
The occasional dull boom of a gun called "Help," from out the grayness,
with pathetic persistency. Soon another sound caught my ear, or rather
vibrated through my frame, for the ground beneath me seemed to tremble,
and I turned to see the swift oncoming of the life-saving crew from a
station below us.

I had barely time to jump one side, before the huge wagon, bearing the
boat and its men, swept past me, every one of those splendid horses with
his head lowered, and his fine muscles set for the race.

It was all done with the celerity and ease with which things are
accomplished in dreams. The sudden halting of the big wagon; the
swinging of the boat to the ground; the swift donning of the yellow
oilskin suits by the crew; the launch, and before one had time to wink,
the strong strokes in perfect time, that bore the boat up and down, and
up again, on those tumultuous waves.

There were other spectators beside myself, standing with strained sight
and hearing, and throbbing hearts, upon the strip of beach. And there
were other workers beside the crew. I had thought we were a small
community out there in the little suburb, and I gazed with wonder that
morning at the crowd which seemed to have dropped from the sky, or come
up from below.

The men were chiefly from the middle and laboring classes, for the
others go in on early trains, but Randolph Chance was there, his
newspaper work giving him his mornings. We spoke to one another, but
entered into no conversation. My thought was with the doomed ship, and
so was his.

"Will any of you boys join me in taking off some of those people?" he
asked the men at hand.

"It's a rough sea, Mr. Chance."

"I know it, but I understand boating; I guess we can manage it."

"Don't you think the life-saving crew can do the work?" I asked.

"No," he answered shortly, "there won't be time fo