e could get a table and chair under
them, and the coast clear. Fortune favoured her during the evening,
and she managed to secure one, and carried it off in triumph; and so
great was her joy in the colour, that she took it out of her pocket
whenever she had a chance next day, and gazed at it enraptured. On
their way to the boat Mildred caught her looking at it, and asked her
where she got it.

Beth explained exactly.

"But it's stealing!" Mildred exclaimed.

"Is it?" said Beth, in pleased surprise. She had never stolen anything
before, and it was a new sensation.

"But don't you know stealing is very wicked?" Mildred asked
impressively.

Beth looked disconcerted: "I never thought of that. I'll put it back."

"How can you? You'll never be there again," Mildred rejoined. "You've
done it now. You've committed a sin."

Beth slipped the bright thing into her pocket. "I'll repent," she
said, and seemed satisfied.

It was a lovely day, and the passage from Kingstown to Holyhead was so
smooth that everybody lounged about the deck, and no one was ill. Beth
was very much interested, first in the receding shore, then in the
people about her. There was one group in particular, evidently of
affluent people, dressed in a way that made her feel ashamed of her
own clothes for the first time in her life. But what particularly
attracted her attention were some bunches of green and purple grapes
which the papa of the party took out of a basket and began to divide.
Beth had never seen grapes before except in pictures, and thought they
looked lovely. The old gentleman gave the grapes to his family, but in
handing them, one little bunch fell on the deck. He picked it up,
looked at it, blew some dust off it; then decided that it was not
good enough for his own children, and handed it to Bernadine, who was
gazing greedily.

Beth dashed forward, snatched it out of her hand, and threw it into
the sea.

"We are not beggars!" she cried.

"Well done, little one," a gentleman who was sitting near exclaimed.
"Won't pick up the crumbs that fall from the rich man's table, eh?
That's a very proper spirit. And who may you be?"

"My father was a gentleman," Beth answered hotly.

CHAPTER XII

Uncle James Patten sent a landau to meet his sister and her family at
the station, on their arrival from Ireland. Mildred was the first to
jump in. She took the best seat, and sat up stiff and straight.

"I do love carriages and horses, ma