ith us."

George had no idea of going with Oscar and Flora. He had been marooned
long enough with a sick woman and her depressed spouse. When Flora was
better and she and Oscar got over their mood of piety and repentance, he
would be glad to join them. In the meantime he searched his mind for
some reasonable excuse.

"Look here," he said, "I'll join you later, Oscar. I've promised some
friends at Nantucket that I'll come down for the hunting."

"I didn't know that you had friends in Nantucket," Oscar told him
moodily.

"The Merediths," George remembered in the nick of time the name of
Becky's grandfather. Oscar would not know the difference.

Having committed himself, his spirits soared. It had, he felt, been an
inspiration to put it over on Oscar like that. Subconsciously he had
known that some day he would follow Becky, and when the moment came, he
had spoken out of his thoughts.

In the two or three days that elapsed between his decision and the date
that he had set for his departure, he found himself enjoying the
city--its clear skies, its hurrying crowds, its color and glow, the
tingle of its rush and hurry, its light-hearted acceptance of the
pleasure of the moment.

He telegraphed for a room at a hotel in Nantucket. Once there, he was
confident that he could find Becky. Everybody would know Admiral
Meredith.

He went by boat from New York to New Bedford, and enjoyed the trip.
Later on the little steamer, _Sankaty_, plying between New Bedford and
Nantucket, he was so shining and splendid that he was much observed by
the other passengers. His Jap servant, trotting after him, was perhaps
less martial in bearing than the ubiquitous Kemp, but he was none the
less an ornament.

Thus George came, at last, to Nantucket, and to his hotel. Having dined,
he asked the way to the Admiral's house. He did not of course plan to
storm the citadel after dark, but a walk would not hurt him, and he
could view from the outside the cage which held his white dove. For he
had come to that, sentimentally, that Becky was the white dove that he
would shelter against his heart.

The clerk at the hotel desk, directing him, thought that the Admiral was
not in his house on Main Street. He was apt at this season to spend his
time in Siasconset.

"'Sconset? Where's 'Sconset?"

"Across the island."

"How can I get there?"

"You can motor over. There's a 'bus, or you can get a car."

So the next morning, George took the 'bus.