he sparkling air,
Armitage walked over to the torpedo boat slips. Across the harbor lay
the city, bathed in golden sunshine, the tree-clad streets rising tier
by tier to the crown, Bellevue Avenue. His gaze wandered seaward and
for the first time since sunset he thought of Anne Wellington. Would
he ever see her again? What was she doing now, he wondered. No doubt
she would attend service at Trinity; many of the cottagers did. He,
too, would go to church there. He had not been lately; it would do him
good, he told himself.

Thus thinking, he stepped aboard the black, ominous, oily _D'Estang_,
made his way aft and clambered down the companion ladder. There was
the usual Sunday morning gathering of young officers from the boats of
the flotilla. The smoke, mainly from pipes--three weeks having elapsed
since pay day--was thick, and an excited argument, not over speeding
records, or coal consumption, but over the merits of an English
vaudeville actor who had appeared the week before at Freebody Park, was
in progress.

"Hello, Jack," said a tall dark officer in spotless white uniform, "how
's the tame torpedo this morning?"

"Fine, fine, Blackie," grinned Armitage. "How's that tin cup, misnamed
the _Jefferson_, to-day?"

"Did n't eat out of your hand last night, did she?" observed Tommy
Winston of the _Adams_, attired in blue trousers and a flannel shirt.

"No, but she will," said Armitage.

"No doubt," replied Winston with his quaint Southern drawl. "Look
here, Jackie, where you going this morning, all dressed up in gorgeous
cits clothes?"

"To church," replied Armitage, "to Trinity; any one want to go with
me?" he asked, ignoring the derisive chorus.

There was a moment's silence and then Bob Black looked at him
quizzically.

"Does any one want to go with you?" he jeered. "Who 's the girl?"

"I wonder--But seriously, I have never been to the service there and
since the Wellingtons asked me to drop into their pew any Sunday, I--"

"The Wellingtons!" exclaimed Thornton of the submarine _Polyp_. "You
don't mean the Ronald Wellingtons?"

"No, I don't mean any Wellingtons at all. I was joking. Why?"

"Then you did n't hear of Thornton's run in with them last week?" said
Winston. "That's so, you were in Washington."

"What was it, Joe?" asked Armitage, turning to Thornton.

"Why, nothing much. Two of my men were arrested last Thursday for
assaulting the Wellington kids. It seems they were walki