tely set herself to playing upon this
weakness of her guardian's, possibly, remotely possibly, would be
doing her injustice. But the fact is obvious that she succeeded by
her cleverly turned discourse in landing her esteemed relative fairly
between the horns of an exceedingly awkward dilemma: either Mr. Port
must accept the invitation and be horribly ill, or he must reject it,
and so throw over his pretensions to elderly youth.

For a moment the unhappy gentleman hung in the wind, and Dorothy
regretted that she had not made her statement of the case still
stronger. Indeed, she was about to supplement it by a remark to the
effect that people never thought of giving up yachting until they were
turned of sixty, when, to her relief, her uncle slowly filled away on
the right tack. His acceptance was expressed in highly ungracious terms;
but, as has been said, Dorothy never troubled herself about forms,
provided she compassed results. The moment that he had uttered the fatal
words, Mr. Port fell to cursing himself in his own mind for being such
a fool; but the same reason that had impelled him to give his consent
withheld him from retracting it. He knew that he was going to be
desperately miserable; but, at least, nobody could say that he was old.

"I'm ever so much obliged to you, Miss Lee, and to you too, Mr. Port,"
said Livingstone. "And now, if you'll excuse me, I'll go and hunt up
Mrs. Rattle-ton, and tell her what a splendid raise I've made, and help
her organize the rest of the party. We shall have only two more. It's a
bore to have more than six people on board a yacht. I don't know why it
is, I'm sure, but if you have more than six they always get to fighting.
Queer, isn't it?"

"I beg your pardon," said Mr. Port. "Mrs. Rattleton? May I ask if this
is the Mrs. Rattleton from New York who was here last season, the one
whose bathing costume was so--so very eccentric, and about whom there
was so much very disagreeable talk?"

"Mrs. Rattleton _is_ from New York, and she _was_ here last season,"
Livingstone answered. "But I can't say that I remember anything
eccentric in her bathing costume, except that it was exceedingly
becoming; and I certainly never heard any disagreeable talk about her.
There may have been such talk about her, but perhaps it was thought just
as well not to have it in my presence. Mrs. Rattleton is my cousin, Mr.
Port--she was a Van Twiller, you know. Do you happen to remember any
of the things th