pped, and sat down at the table facing
Kitty; the elder woman, with a civil freedom, addressed her some
commonplace, and the four were presently in lively talk; for Kitty had
beamed upon the woman in return, having already longed to know something
of them. The world was so fresh to her, that she could find delight in
those poor singing or acting folk, though she had soon to own to herself
that their talk was not very witty nor very wise, and that the best
thing about them was their good-nature. The colonel sat at the end of
the table with a newspaper; Mrs. Ellison had gone to bed; and Kitty was
beginning to tire of her new acquaintance, and to wonder how she could
get away from them, when she saw rescue in the eye of Mr. Arbuton as he
came down to the cabin. She knew he was looking for her; she saw him
check himself with a start of recognition; then he walked rapidly by the
group, without glancing at them.

"Brrrr!" said the blond girl, drawing her blue knit shawl about her
shoulders, "isn't it cold?" and she and her friends laughed.

"O dear!" thought Kitty, "I didn't suppose they were so rude. I'm afraid
I must say good night," she added aloud, after a little, and stole away
the most conscience-stricken creature on that boat. She heard those
people laugh again after she left them.

IV.

MR. ARBUTON'S INSPIRATION.

The next morning, when Mr. Arbuton awoke, he found a clear light upon
the world that he had left wrapped in fog at midnight. A heavy gale was
blowing, and the wide river was running in seas that made the boat
stagger in her course, and now and then struck her bows with a force
that sent the spray from their seething tops into the faces of the
people on the promenade. The sun, out of rifts of the breaking clouds,
launched broad splendors across the villages and farms of the level
landscape and the crests and hollows of the waves; and a certain joy of
the air penetrated to the guarded consciousness of Mr. Arbuton.
Involuntarily he looked about for the people he meant to have nothing
more to do with, that he might appeal to the sympathies of one of them,
at least, in his sense of such an admirable morning. But a great many
passengers had come on board, during the night, at Murray Bay, where the
brief season was ending, and their number hid the Ellisons from him.
When he went to breakfast, he found some one had taken his seat near
them, and they did not notice him as he passed by in search of anothe