f no thought of
greed or bribery could touch the angel's soul which shone through them.

'For you,' said Paul.

'Right oh!' Bill replied, biting at the coin with her milk-white teeth,
and then bestowing it in her pocket. 'Now, if you'll promise never to
leave Madge alone about one thing, I'll be as good--as good--you can't
guess anything as good as I'll be.'

'There's no such thing as a one-sided bargain,' said Paul, 'and you
must let me know what you expect from me in answer to this astonishing
confession.'

'Don't you chaff me,' said Bill, still rolling her golden head upon his
shoulder, and beaming on him with those eyes of innocence. 'I might be
having a sweetheart of my own one of these days. Don't you think that's
likely?'

'I don't mind betting,' Paul answered, 'that you'll have fifty--'

Bill sat up straight in her deck-chair, clasped her hands with a
vivid gesture, and looked skyward with a glance pure as the heavens
themselves.

'What a lark!' she breathed--' oh, what a lark! Fifty? Do you think
they'd all come together?' she asked with a sudden eagerness, as if her
life depended on the answer.

'Say, five at a time,' said Paul--'ten per annum; that will give you
five years to deal with them, beginning, we will say, about two years
from now.'

'But that's where I want to come in,' said Bill 'I want to begin at
once.'

'There is no need to be in a hurry,' Paul answered. 'There is plenty of
time before you.'

'Oh yes,' said Bill thoughtfully. 'But, then, you see, I don't want to
waste any of it. Now, I just want to tell you what I want you to do for
me. I want you to din it into Madge's ears, morning, noon, and night,
that it's time that I should do my hair up and wear long frocks.'

'And if I undertake that mission?' Paul asked

'We're friends,' cried Bill, rising and holding out her hand 'You'll
see,' she added, 'I can be just as nice as I have been nasty.'

From this time forward the voyage was like a happy dream. Suez and
Naples and Gibraltar were full of interest and wonder to the untravelled
Madge, and the Mediterranean was smooth as a pond through all the lovely
days and nights of the European spring. The Bay of Biscay so far belied
its stormy reputation that there was scarcely a heave upon its surface,
and at last the shores of England came in sight, sacred and beautiful to
the eyes of a girl born and bred in the Colonies. Then came Tilbury, and
at Tilbury brother George was waiting to