t was the three hours' cruise. No one gave a thought of
the missing topmast and bowsprit. There was a nice sailing breeze,
and, clipped as her wings were, the Osprey was still faster than
the majority of the yachts.

As soon as the two ladies had been put ashore, Frank sailed for
Cowes. It was too late when they got there for anything to be done
that evening, but Frank went ashore with the captain, and found
that the spars were all ready to receive the iron work and sheaves
from the old ones; and as these had been towed up to the yard to be
in readiness, Messieurs White promised that they would arrange for
a few hands to come to work early, and that the spars should be
brought off by half-past eight on Monday morning.

As soon as he had returned in the gig, after putting the ladies
ashore at Ryde, Frank had called George Lechmere to him.

"It is all right, George, thanks to your interview with Miss
Greendale. It was a bold step to take, but it was the best possible
thing, and succeeded splendidly, and everything is to be as I wish
it."

"I am glad, indeed, to hear it, Major, and I hoped that you would
have something of the sort to tell me. There was a look about you
both that I took to mean that things were going on well."

"Yes, George. At first, when she told me that you had told her
about that affair at Delhi, I felt that there was really no
occasion for you to have said anything about it; but it did me a
great deal of good. She made much more of it than there was any
occasion for; but, you know, when women are inclined to take a
pleasant view of a thing, they will magnify molehills into
mountains."

"I thought that it would do good, Major. I don't mean that it would
do you any good, but that it would do good generally. I had to tell
the other story, and that came naturally with it; and, at any rate,
she could not but see that there was a deal of difference between
the nature of the man who had been so good to me, and that of that
scoundrel."

"That is just the effect it did have. Well, don't say anything
about it forward, at present. The men shall be told later on."

By one o'clock on Monday the Osprey was back at Ryde, and at two
o'clock the dinghy went ashore with the mate and two of the hands,
who waited a quarter of an hour till a vehicle brought down the
ladies' luggage. Soon afterwards Frank went ashore in the gig, and
brought Lady Greendale and Bertha off.

As they went down to their cabin, Berth