e. I declined to assist in breaking the Sabbath over any
such pranks, but a couple of scantily clad, dripping youths arose from
the deep and succeeded in loosening a heavy three-inch plank from the
flooring of the wharf. This was projected well out over the water, and
the fair Mary was induced to ascend and exhibit therefrom. I did not
approve at all, but thought it my duty to remain as chaperon until Belle
and another lady, whom I perceived walking leisurely out the pier,
should arrive.

The young men sprang back into the water to be on the reception
committee, and Mary teetered on the far end of the plank. There was
heard a loud, suggestive _crack_, and she leaped into space in a most
graceful semicircle before touching the water; but that awful board, the
instant her weight was removed, rose straight up in the air, nearly
knocked me off the dock, and with a groan slid through the opening
whence it had been raised, into the depths below.

Belle rushed to my rescue, while the other woman stood still and
shrieked.

"Nobody hurt!" called out from the water a nice-looking lad who was
swimming beside Mary, and apparently daring her to further exploits.

"Who is the young man?" I asked my wife, being ready to change the
subject from my own narrow escape.

"You mean the one with the Burne Jones head and the sleepy blue eyes
that's round with Mary all the time? His name's Flaker, and he's a
medical student from Chicago. That's all I know about him." But she was
destined to hear more, as we sat on the hotel veranda that night, from
two old ladies inside the open window and closed blind.

"Isn't it scandalous," said one, "the way Mrs. Gemmell tries to shove
that girl forward on every occasion?"

"Yes," said the other. "The old friendship between her and Mrs. Martin
is all broken up since she tried so hard to get Lincoln Todd entangled
with her last summer, and now she's doing her best to catch young
Flaker."

"I don't believe he has any idea who the girl is, or rather who she is
not."

"No, indeed, and his people would be in a great state if they knew the
sort of company he was keeping."

"Who are they?"

"Don't you know? His father is Dr. Flaker, who has that fine mansion on
the Grand Boulevard, and his mother belongs to one of the best New York
families. They're all as proud as Lucifer."

"I think it is time we went home, David. Listeners never hear any good
of themselves," said Belle, loudly enough to arrest