not?--to think of that chap swimming
along in the dark, and then to find that his monument to-day is a
lighthouse, with revolving lamps and electric appliances, and with
ocean tramps and bridges and men-of-war around it. We have improved in
our mechanism since then," he said, with an air, "but I am afraid the
men of to-day don't do that sort of thing for the women of to-day."

"Then it is the men who have deteriorated," said one of the equerries,
bowing to Miss Morris; "it is certainly not the women."

The two Americans looked at Miss Morris to see how she received this,
but she smiled good-naturedly.

"I know a man who did more than that for a woman," said Carlton,
innocently. "He crossed an ocean and several countries to meet her,
and he hasn't met her yet."

Miss Morris looked at him and laughed, in the safety that no one
understood him but herself.

"But he ran no danger," she answered.

"He didn't, didn't he?" said Carlton, looking at her closely and
laughing. "I think he was in very great danger all the time."

"Shocking!" said Miss Morris, reprovingly; "and in her very presence,
too." She knitted her brows and frowned at him. "I really believe if
you were in prison you would make pretty speeches to the jailer's
daughter."

"Yes," said Carlton, boldly, "or even to a woman who was a prisoner
herself."

"I don't know what you mean," she said, turning away from him to the
others. "How far was it that Leander swam?" she asked.

The English captain pointed out two spots on either bank, and said that
the shores of Abydos were a little over that distance apart.

"As far as that?" said Miss Morris. "How much he must have cared for
her!" She turned to Carlton for an answer.

"I beg your pardon," he said. He was measuring the distance between
the two points with his eyes.

"I said how much he must have cared for her! You wouldn't swim that
far for a girl."

"For a girl!" laughed Carlton, quickly. "I was just thinking I would
do it for fifty dollars."

The English captain gave a hasty glance at the distance he had pointed
out, and then turned to Carlton. "I'll take you," he said, seriously.
"I'll bet you twenty pounds you can't do it." There was an easy laugh
at Carlton's expense, but he only shook his head and smiled.

"Leave him alone, captain," said the American Secretary. "It seems to
me I remember a story of Mr. Carlton's swimming out from Navesink to
meet an ocean liner. It was about