pisode of the morning.

Elsa expressed her delight in laughter that was less hearty than
malicious. How clearly she could see the picture! And then, the
ever-recurring comparisons: Arthur would have gone by, Arthur would not
have bothered himself, for he detested scenes and fisticuffs. How few
real men she had met, men who walked through life naturally, unfettered
by those self-applied manacles called "What will people say?"

"Let us go up to the bow," she invited. "I've a little story myself to
tell."

They clambered down and up the ladders, over the windlass and
anchor-chains which a native was busily painting. A school of porpoise
were frolicking under the cutwater. _Plop_! _plop_! they went; and
sometimes one would turn sidewise and look up roguishly with his
twinkling seal-like eyes. _Plop_! _plop_! Finally all save one sank
gracefully out of sight. The laggard crisscrossed the cutwater a dozen
times, just to show the watchers how extremely clever he was; and then,
with a _plop_! that was louder than any previous one, he vanished into
the deeps.

"I love these Oriental seas," said Elsa, with her arms on the rail and
her chin resting upon them. She wore no hat, and her hair shimmered in
the sun and shivered in the wind.

"And yet they are the most treacherous of all seas. There's not a
cloud in sight; in two hours from now we may be in the heart of a
winter storm. Happily, they are rarities along this coast; so you will
not have the excitement of a shipwreck."

"I am grateful for that. Mercy! Think of being marooned on a desert
island with the colonel and his three spinsters! Proprieties, from
morning until night. And the chattering tourists! Heaven forfend!"

"You had a story to tell me," he suggested. His heart was hot within
him. He wanted to sweep her up in his arms and hold her there forever.
But the barrier of wasted opportunities stood between. How delicately
beautiful she was: Bernini's Daphne.

"Oh, yes; I had almost forgotten." She stood up and felt for wandering
strands of hair. "I find the world more amusing day by day. I ought
to feel hurt, but I am only amused. I spoke to the colonel this
morning, merely to say howdy-do. He stared me in the eye and
de-lib-erately turned his back to me."

"The doddering old---"

"There, there! It isn't worth getting angry about."

"But, don't you understand? It's all because of me. Simply because
you have been kind to a poor dev