air of
cunning, treacherous villains. And so I am going on to Ponape. And I
will stay there until your father returns. I daresay," he added with a
smile, "that he will give me a berth as a trader somewhere."

A sudden joy illumined the girl's face. "I _am_ so glad, Harvey. And
mother, too, will be overjoyed to see you again; father has never ceased
to talk about you since you left him. Oh, Harvey, we shall have all the
old, old delightful days over again. But," she added artlessly, "there
will be but you and I now to go fishing and shooting together. Carmela
and her husband are living in the Ladrones, and Librada and her husband,
though they are still on Ponape, are ten miles away from mother and I.
Then Jack is in California, and Ned is away on a whaling cruise."

A quick emotion stirred his bosom as he looked into her now joyous
face. "I don't think you and I can go out shooting and fishing together,
Tessa, as we did in what you call 'the old, old days.'"

"Can't we, Harvey?" she asked wonderingly.

He shook his head, and then mused.

"Tessa, I wish you could meet my sisters."

She clasped her hands together. "Ah, so do I, Harvey. I should love to
meet them. Do you think they would like me?"

"I am sure they would."

They were silent for a while, the girl with her head bent and her long
lashes hiding her eyes from him as she sat in the deck-chair, and he
thinking of what his sisters would really say if he wrote and told them
that he thought he had at last found a woman he would wish to make his
wife.

"Tessa."

"Yes, Harvey."

She did not look at him, only bent her head still lower.

"_Tessa!_"

"Yes, Harvey."

Her hands were trembling, and her courage was gone, for there was
something in his voice that filled her with delight.

"Tessa," he said, speaking softly, as he drew nearer to her, and tried
to make her look at him; "do you know that you are a very beautiful
woman?"

"I am glad you think so, Harvey," she whispered. "You used to tell
father that Carmela and Librada were the most beautiful women you had
ever seen."

"So they were. But you are quite as beautiful. And, Tessa----"

"Yes, Harvey"--this in the faintest whisper.

"Could you care for me at all, Tessa? I do not mean as a friend. I am
only a poor trader, but if I thought you could love-me, I----"

She took a quick glance around the deck, and bent towards him. "I have
always loved you, Harvey; always, always." Then she pressed he