I get a chance to
look at anything so lovely as that girl, I mean to do it, just as I look
at a flower or a picture. I don't mean to lose all the delicious froth
of life. Do you happen to know her first name?"

"Lena," answered Ellery shortly.

"Lena! It's a delicate fragile little name--not meant for a girl who has
to plug her way through life. Her real name is Andromeda, poor
child--chained to the rock and momently expecting the jaws of poverty."

"You know, Dick, the attention that seems like a trifle to you, with a
life full of interests, may look like a serious affair to her."

"See here, old man, you needn't be so snippy. Must I confine my
philanthropy to the old and ugly to keep it above suspicion? I'm just so
far interested in this, and no more, that I'm sorry for that little
girl, and if I saw a chance, I'd do her a good turn, as I pass along;
and if I didn't think more of you than of any other man, I wouldn't give
you the satisfaction of rendering so much of an account of myself."

Ellery was silent and looked at the river with its whirlpools, at the
cliffs, gray with stone and pale green with May, and sometimes at Dick,
who leaned forward with his chin in his hand, apparently absorbed in
thought, but occasionally shooting a glance at Lena who laughed and
chattered with Mr. Nolan in a sort of intermittent fever.

The steamer tooted and splashed at the landing below the fort, and
turned herself about for the return trip. Sand-martins dropped from
their holes in the cliffs and skimmed across the bows, and the breeze
blew fresher as they headed up stream. Still the two friends sat in
silence, though once Percival looked across and laughed, as though he
enjoyed the other's seriousness.

"Norris, you are funny," he said.

"Why?"

"You always see consequences to things."

"Most things have both causes and effects," Ellery retorted, ruffled.

"I deny it," said Dick.

When they creaked at the dock, Dick suddenly pushed forward so that he
almost touched Lena in the crowd that was hurrying to shore.

"Good afternoon, Miss Quincy," he said. "I hope you have enjoyed this
little sail as much as I have."

Knowing that he had watched her ever since they started, she looked up
at him with flushed inquiry.

"Yes, it was lovely," she said.

"Come on, Lena," exclaimed her escort, seizing her arm. "I guess we
ought to hurry. There'll be an awful crowd on the street-cars."

"If you'll allow me," said Dick, "I