trange."

Her fears, however, were groundless, for Debby met her without a
freckle, looking all the better for her walk; and though her feet were
wet with chasing the waves, and her pretty gown the worse for salt
water, Aunt Pen never chid her for the destruction of her raiment, nor
uttered a warning word against an unladylike exuberance of spirits, but
replied to her inquiry most graciously,--

"Certainly, my love, we shall bathe at eleven, and there will be just
time to get Victorine and our dresses; so run on to the house, and I
will join you as soon as I have finished what I am saying to Mrs.
Earl,"--then added, in a stage-aside, as she put a fallen lock off the
girl's forehead, "You are doing beautifully! He is evidently struck;
make yourself interesting, and don't burn your nose, I beg of you."

Debby's bright face clouded over, and she walked on with so much
stateliness that her escort wondered "what the deuse the old lady had
done to her," and exerted himself to the utmost to recall her merry
mood, but with indifferent success.

"Now I begin to feel more like myself, for this is getting back to
first principles, though I fancy I look like the little old woman who
fell asleep on the king's highway and woke up with abbreviated drapery;
and you look funnier still, Aunt Pen," said Debby, as she tied on her
pagoda-hat, and followed Mrs. Carroll, who walked out of her
dressing-room an animated bale of blue cloth surmounted by a gigantic
sun-bonnet.

Mr. Leavenworth was in waiting, and so like a blond-headed lobster in
his scarlet suit that Debby could hardly keep her countenance as they
joined the groups of bathers gathering along the breezy shore.

For an hour each day the actors and actresses who played their
different roles at the ----- Hotel with such precision and success put
off their masks and dared to be themselves. The ocean wrought the
change, for it took old and young into its arms, and for a little while
they played like children in their mother's lap. No falsehood could
withstand its rough sincerity; for the waves washed paint and powder
from worn faces, and left a fresh bloom there. No ailment could
entirely resist its vigorous cure; for every wind brought healing on
its wings, endowing many a meagre life with another year of health. No
gloomy spirit could refuse to listen to its lullaby, and the spray
baptized it with the subtile benediction of a cheerier mood. No rank
held place there; f