restrain the impulse to climb.

And now here was Captain Butt singling out Miss Ray again and ignoring
the rest of them. If she could have found any reasonable excuse for
refusing Maidie Ray would have declined. But Sandy's eyes said "Come."
Butt renewed his invitation. She turned and looked appealingly at Mrs.
Wells, as though to say "What shall I do?" but that matron was
apparently engrossed in a volume of Stevenson, and would not be drawn
into the matter, and finally Marion caught Miss Porter's eye. There, at
least, was a gleam of encouragement and sympathy. Impulsive and
capricious as that young woman could be on occasions, the girl had
learned to appreciate the genuine qualities of her room-mate, and of
late had been taking sides for Marion against the jealousies of her
fellows.

"Why don't you go?" she murmured, with a nod of her head towards the
stairs, and with slightly heightened color, Miss Ray smiled acceptance
at the captain, and, following Sandy's lead through the labyrinth of
steamer-chairs about them, tripped briskly away over the open deck, and
there, at the very foot of the steep, ladder-like ascent, became aware
of Mr. Stuyvesant leaning on an elbow and gazing at her with all his big
blue eyes.

She had to stop and go around under the stairs and take his thin,
outstretched hand. She had to stop a moment to speak to him, though what
he said, or she said, neither knew a moment after. All she was conscious
of as she turned away was that now at least every eye in all the
sisterhood was on her, and, redder than ever, she fairly flew up the
steep steps, and was welcomed by the chivalric Butt upon the bridge.

That afternoon several of the Band were what Miss Porter was constrained
to call "nastily snippy" in their manner to her, and, feeling wronged
and misjudged, it was not to be wondered at that her father's daughter
should resent it. And yet so far from exulting in having thus been
distinguished and recognized above her fellows, Miss Ray had felt deeply
embarrassed, and almost the first words she said after receiving the
bluff seaman's effusive greeting were in plea for her associates.

"Oh, Captain Butt, it's most kind of you to ask me up here--and my
brother, too, will be so interested in the chart-room, but, can't
you--won't you ask Dr. Wells and at least some of the ladies? You know
they all would be glad to come, and----"

"That's all right, Miss Ray," bawled old Butt, breaking in on her
hurr