ttractive. He was awfully well
bred, too! He noticed me a lot on the boat (I had a perfect love of
a Redfern coat to wear on deck), but he didn't try to scrape
acquaintance with me. He worshipped from afar (a woman can always
tell when a man's thinking about her), and while I wouldn't have had
him act otherwise for the world, I was crazy to have him speak to
me.

Our boat docked at Hoboken, and by tipping right and left I managed
to be the very first passenger down the gangway. I half ran, half
slid, but I landed in Dad's arms.

My boxes and bags passed through the custom-house with flying
colors. But my trunks--I couldn't even find them all. Five of them
were stacked in the "M" division, but the other two.... Then
there was my maid's trunk to look for under the "V's" (her name is
Valentine). Dad and I were commencing at "A," prepared to got
through the whole alphabet, if necessary, when the nice young man
stepped up and, raising his hat, asked if he might be of any
service. He asked Dad, but he looked at me.

"Oh, If you please!" I said "I've lost two trunks. My brand is a
white, 'M' in a red circle."

"I noticed them in the 'R' pile" he replied. "I'll have them moved
to the 'M's' right away."

"Now that's what I call being decent," said Dad, as soon as the
young man had left us. "Did you notice, he didn't wear a uniform?
Probably an inspector, or something of the sort, eh, Elizabeth?"

"Well--er--not exactly," I managed to say. "The fact is, Dad, he
came over on the boat with me, and--"

Dad looked thoughtful.

"He never spoke to me once the whole trip," I added hastily.

Dad looked less thoughtful.

"It was nice of him to wait till I had you with me, wasn't it?"

Dad smiled. "If you think it was, it probably was, my dear," he
said.

Chapter Three

The nice young man did more than find my missing trunks; he found a
custom-house officer, and, after asking me privately which trunks
contained my most valuable possessions and how much I had thought of
declaring, he succeeded in having them passed through on my own
valuation without any undue exposure of their contents.

By this time Dad had grown very respectful. To see his little
Elizabeth treated like a queen, while on all sides angry women were
having their best gowns pawed over and mussed; was a most wholesome
lesson. He paid the thousand and odd dollars duty like a little man.

We'd been saved a lot of bother, and nobody hates a lot of bo