e most beautiful things in existence. Though her crew consisted but
of two men and a boy, and she measured scarcely five-and-twenty tons, he
declared that if it were necessary he would sail round the world in her
without the slightest hesitation.

"Flatten in the jib, and take a pull at the main-sheet, my lads, and we
shall run into the bay without a tack, if the wind holds as it does
now," he sang out.

The men, as they came aft to execute the latter order, had to disturb
some of the passengers, of whom there were several, seated on cloaks
round the skylight, or standing up holding on to the weather rigging, or
leaning against the main-boom. Clara Maynard, accustomed to yachting,
promptly moved to windward, aided by Harry Caulfield, a young military
officer, who had ridden over that morning to Luton, for the pleasure of
making a trip on board the yacht; but her aunt, Miss Sarah Pemberton,
looked somewhat annoyed at being asked to shift her seat. Harry,
however, came to her assistance, and placed a camp-stool for her against
the weather bulwarks.

"I am sorry, Sarah, to inconvenience you," said the captain,
good-naturedly, "but we haven't as much room on board the _Ariadne_ as
on the deck of a line-of-battle ship."

The captain had called his yacht after the first ship in which he went
to sea.

The cutter having rounded a lofty point, a small and beautiful bay
opened out ahead; and the wind remaining steady, without making another
tack, she stood in directly for it.

"We could not have chosen a more lovely spot for our picnic," exclaimed
Clara. "See, Aunt Sarah--I am sure you will be pleased when you get
there. Watch those picturesque cliffs, ever changing in shape as we
sail along--and see those breezy downs above them, and the fine yellow
sands below, and that pretty valley with the old fisherman's cottage on
one side, and the clear stream running down its centre, and leaping over
the rocks in a tiny cascade."

"I shall be very glad to get safe on shore," answered Miss Pemberton,
who had been persuaded, much against her will, to venture for the first
time on board the little _Ariadne_.

She had been invited, on the death of Clara's mother, her younger
sister, to take up her abode with her widowed brother-in-law, and had
only lately accepted his frequently repeated offer. Whatever good
qualities she might have possessed, she was certainly not attractive in
appearance, being tall and thin, with a cold an