a good exercise in the fresh air,
for I am almost sure it will rain by to-morrow. You might take her to
the beach, Gertrude, and come home by Marine Avenue."

"Very well, mamma; I will, certainly," said Gertrude. But there was a
lack of heartiness in her tone. Like most very young girls she had a
strong sense of the observant eyes of Mrs. Grundy, and she did not at
all approve of the brown gingham. "I wonder why mamma can't wait till
she has made Cannie look like other people," she was saying to herself.

There was no help for it, however. None of Mrs. Gray's children ever
thought of disputing her arrangements for a moment; so the two girls set
forth, Cannie in the despised gingham, and Gertrude in a closely fitting
suit of blue serge, with a large hat of the same blue, which stood out
like a frame round the delicate oval of her face, and set off the
feathery light hair to perfection.

Their way for a little distance was down a sort of country lane, which
was the short cut to the Cliffs. It ended in a smooth greensward at the
top of a wall of broken rocks; and, standing on the edge, Cannie called
out, "Oh!" with a sense of sudden surprise and freedom.

Before her was a bay of the softest blue, with here and there a line of
white surf, where long rollers were sweeping in toward the distant
beach. Opposite, stretched a point of land rising into a low hill, which
shone in the yellow afternoon sun; and from its end the unbroken sea
stretched away into a lovely distance, whose color was like that of an
opal, and which had no boundary but a mysterious dim line of faintly
tinted sky. Sails shone against the moving water; gulls were dipping and
diving; a flock of wild-ducks with glossy black heads swam a little away
out from the shore. Beyond the point which made the other arm of the
little bay rose an island, ramparted by rocks, over which the surf
could be seen to break with an occasional toss of spray. There was a
delicious smell of soft salty freshness, and something besides,--a kind
of perfume which Candace could not understand or name.

"Oh, what is it; what can it be?" she said.

"What?"

"The smell. It is like flowers. Oh, there it is again!"

"Mamma makes believe that it is the Spice Islands," answered Gertrude,
indifferently, "or else Madeira. You know there is nothing between us
and the coast of Africa except islands."

"Really and truly? How wonderful!"

"Well, I don't see how it is so very wonderful. It