ke Elsie, after fourteen
days. Truly there is much enlightenment in a hug!

Monsieur le Comte Edouard de Poincilit, to his intense chagrin, found
that a ship's captain has far-reaching powers when he chooses to exert
them. Rather than enter a Montevidean jail, where people have died
suddenly of nasty fevers, he not only restored the missing documents
but submitted to a close scrutiny of his own belongings, which resulted
in the pleasing discovery that he was not a French count, but a denizen
of Martinique--most probably a defaulting valet or clerk. No one
troubled to inquire further about him. His passage money was refunded
and he was bundled ashore. Courtenay's view was that he had heard, by
some means, of Isobel's intended departure from Valparaiso, and deemed
it a good chance of winning her approval of his countship, seeing that
such titles are not subjected to serious investigation in South
America. Suarez took his Fuegian bride up country, where Mr. Baring
and Dr. Christobal established them on a small ranch.

Isobel renewed her voyage somewhat chastened in spirit. But her
volatile nature soon survived the shocks it had received. By the time
the _Kansas_ put her ashore at Tilbury, to be clasped in the arms of a
timid and tearful aunt, she was ready as ever for the campaign of glory
she had mapped out in London and Paris.

And she was a success, too. Her father's victory over the copper ring,
her own adventures, which lost nothing in the telling, and her
vivacious self-confidence, carried her into society with a whirl.
Recently, her engagement to an impecunious peer was announced.

* * * * * *

Captain Courtenay, R.N., and his wife are not such distinguished
personages, but their romance had a sequel worthy of its unusual
beginning. They were married quietly a week after the _Kansas_ reached
London. There was some war scare in full blast at the moment, and a
Lord of the Admiralty who deigned to read the newspapers thought it was
a pity that a smart sailor should not risk his life for his country
rather than in behalf of base commerce. So he looked up Courtenay's
record, and found that it was excellent, the young lieutenant's reason
for resigning his commission being the necessity of supporting his
mother when her estate was swept away by a bank failure. The Sea Lords
made him a first-rate offer of reinstatement in the service, at a
higher rank, without any loss of sen