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 THE ROYAL MARINE 
 
 Fn Tdyl of Warragansett Pier 
 
 BY 
 
 BRANDER MATTHEWS 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 ‘THE STORY OF A STORY, AND OTHER STORIES” 
 “VIGNETTES OF MANHATTAN” ETO, 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 
 
 NEW YORK 
 HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 
 1894 
 
oy 
 
 
 
- 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP, PAGE 
 I. JUDGE GILLESPIE’S LUNCHEON. . a 
 
 Il LITTLE MAT HITCHCOCK’S CRAB- 
 BING-PARTY ° . e . ° ° . 30 
 
 III. THE HOP AT THE CASINO Re a ci 
 
 IV. THE MORNING SERVICE AT THE 
 CEReEEE OES oe” "+ gs eee ee 
 
 V. MISS MARLENSPUYK’S READING- 
 LITE, os Re a eee” Mamie ate eS 3) 
 
 VI. THE CONCERT AT THE CASINO. . 116 
 
 S815 
 

 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 “HE HAD A SUDDEN INSPIRATION”. . . . Frontispiece 
 “<HOW’S THE WATER THIS MORNING?’”?, Facingp. 6 
 «(ST RECKON SO,’ SHE REPLIED” . . . . “ 26 
 
 “WHENEVER ANY OF THE OTHER MEN WENT 
 
 OFF WITH HER FORA WALK” . .. “ 32 
 “TITTLE MAT HITCHCOCK”. . . .... “ 44 
 Deceerenitc =... a eae 62 
 ots! RS SN a 74 
 
 “¢sHE DIDN’T ACCEPT ME—NO,’ HE AN- 
 
 0 EEL SS SRG a a age a 108 
 

 
 ee Pe 
 “nt 
 
 
 
THE ROYAL MARINE; 
 
 AN IDYL OF NARRAGANSETT PIER 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 JUDGE GILLESPIE’S LUNCHEON 
 
 Ir was not yet half-past eleven o’clock 
 of a bright, warm morning towards the 
 end of July when Mr. Joshua Hoff- 
 man’s steam-yacht Lhadamanthus an- 
 nounced her arrival at Narragansett 
 Pier and dropped anchor off the beach. | 
 A few minutes later an electric launch 
 sped alongside the little float just 
 within the breakwater before the Ca- 
 sino, and the aged owner of the yacht 
 stepped ashore, accompanied by one of 
 
4 
 
 
 
 his guests, a young man of barely thir. 7 
 ty. Under the arch of the Casino thes 
 old gentleman found a carriage, and af- 
 ter making a bargain with the driver, 
 he got in. 
 
 “T shall be back about four o’clock,” 
 he said to his young friend. 
 
 “You will find me here in good 
 time, sir,’ was the reply. Then the 
 carriage drove off with the owner of 
 the yacht, and the younger man was 
 left standing. Before him was the open 
 door of the Casino, but a single glance 
 told him that the hour had not yet ar- 
 rived when the veranda and the terrace 
 filled up with guests. 
 
 He turned to the right, and in two 
 minutes he found himself tramping 
 along a covered plank walk which ran 
 in front of the line of low wooden bath- 
 ing-houses. Striped awnings protected 
 from the glare of the sun the gayly | 
 
 
 
5 
 
 
 
 dressed women who sat on the platforms 
 which projected from every bathing- 
 house. Beyond these platforms there 
 were slight white tents, under the shel- 
 ter of which little children played in 
 the sand and were happy. In front of 
 the tents was the broad beach, whereon 
 the surf was breaking sturdily. 
 
 A throng of women, young and old, 
 with here and there a man, or more of- 
 ten a boy, floated leisurely down the 
 plank walk, and filled the platforms, 
 and spread out over the beach, exchang- 
 ing frequent greetings with one another. 
 The passenger who had just landed 
 from the Lhadamanthus heard cheerful 
 young voices on all sides of him asking 
 each other, ‘ How’s the water this morn- 
 ing?’ “Are you going in?” “Whose 
 yacht is that?” with other questions of 
 like importance. Although he had not 
 yet recognized a single acquaintance in 
 
6 
 
 
 
 the crowd which surged about him, the 
 young man did not feel lonely. He 
 gazed around placidly, interested by the 
 sight and moving forward slowly. 
 When he had gone to the end of the 
 plank walk and had turned back again, 
 two small boys in their bathing-suits, 
 just out of the water and dripping wet, 
 rushed past him in high glee; and in 
 seeking to keep out of their way as they 
 turned and twisted at his side, he care- 
 lessly trod on the dress of the lady in 
 front of him. He heard the skirt rip 
 before the weight of his foot checked 
 the progress of the owner of the dress. 
 “T beg your pardon!” he cried, tak- 
 ing off his hat hastily, as he heard her 
 say “Oh!” in a tone of annoyance. 
 Catching his apology, she turned and 
 smiled sweetly, and said: “ It don’t mat- 
 ter. It isn’t torn, I reckon.” 
 The accent was Southern. So per- 
 

 
 “6 How’s THE WATER THIS MORNING ?’” 
 

 
7 
 
 haps was the face of the speaker. She 
 was a girl of scant twenty, a little short, 
 and almost plump. She had light brown 
 hair which curled easily under a stiff sail- 
 or hat. Her eyes were dark gray. She 
 wore a white yachting-dress trimmed 
 with blue; on the sleeve were the stripes 
 and the crowned V.R. of a boatswain in 
 the navy of Her Majesty Queen Victoria. 
 
 At her right walked a handsome boy 
 of six, strikingly like his sister. He, 
 too, wore a sailor suit of British manu- 
 facture ; his straw hat had a black band, 
 whereon was stamped, in gold letters, 
 Pb, 9. Victory.” 
 
 As she turned away and passed on 
 again, the young man who had trod on 
 her gown caught sight of the man who 
 was walking with her on the left. 
 
 “Why, that’s little Mat Hitchcock,” 
 he said to himself. As he had no great 
 liking for Mr. Mather Hitchcock, he 
 
8 
 
 
 
 dismissed the young lady’s companion 
 from his mind. 
 
 Leaving the bathing-houses, he went 
 down on the beach and strolled along, 
 looking for the strange and peculiar cos- 
 tumes that were to be seen at Narragan- 
 sett Pier, if the comic papers could be 
 believed; but in less than ten minutes 
 he was forced to the conclusion that the 
 
 humorous artists were not credible, for — 
 
 the bathing-dresses he saw before him 
 then were as decorous as he had seen 
 at any other American watering-place. 
 Wherein Narragansett Pier differed 
 from other watering-places was not in 
 the costumes of its bathers, but in the 
 beauty of its beach, which sloped slowly 
 away, and on which the waves rolled in 
 and curled over and fell forward with 
 most enticing freshness. 
 
 Their appeal was irresistible at last, 
 and when the clock of the Casino doubt- 
 
 “ 
 Dee os 
 * oP 
 4% Sue narttigte. 
 Cs A 
 ee 
 “he=* = 
 
9 
 
 
 
 fully chimed forth the hour of noon, 
 the young man who had arrived on the 
 Rhadamanthus was in the surf. The 
 sand was fine and firm, and free from 
 stones and shells. The waves fell for- 
 ward sharply, and the surf tingled the 
 blood of the bathers and refreshed them. 
 There was no undertow, and so there 
 ‘was no need of a life-line; even little 
 children splashed about safely in water 
 up to their armpits. To rescue any one 
 who might stand in sudden need of help, 
 there was a row-boat bobbing up and 
 down just outside the breakers. Three 
 small rafts, anchored one beyond the 
 other, afforded resting-places for advent- 
 urous swimmers; and the farthest of 
 the three was furnished with a spring- 
 board for diving. 
 
 The young man who had landed from 
 the yacht plunged head foremost into 
 the first breaker he met, and then swam 
 
10 
 
 
 
 briskly to the nearest raft. Having 
 thus wet and warmed himself, he came 
 inshore, that he might have the full 
 benefit of the surf. When he touched 
 bottom again and stood firm that a 
 breaker larger than usual should curve 
 over him, he found himself near a little 
 group of bathers, and he could not help 
 but hear their conversation. Two stal- 
 wart young men, one with a white shirt 
 having a light-blue C on it, and the 
 other in a white shirt having a dark-red 
 H on it, were begging a young lady to 
 let them tow her out to the nearest raft. 
 
 “But I can’t swim a stroke, and you 
 know I mustn’t get my hair wet,” said 
 the:girl, “if you want to see me at the 
 hop to-night.” 
 
 At the sound of her voice the passen- 
 ger from the Lhadamanthus looked 
 around, and he identified her at once as 
 the young lady whose dress he had trod- 
 
11 
 
 
 
 den upon nearly half an hour earlier. 
 Her bathing-costume was of black, and 
 her light-brown hair was coiled tightly 
 about her shapely head, two or three 
 stray locks curling prettily over her fore- 
 head. In the full light of the mid-day 
 sun there was a glint of gold in some of 
 the braids) The water and the wind 
 had heightened the fresh color in her 
 cheeks. Apparently she had not recog- 
 nized him again, and the young man, 
 remarking her beauty, hoped that he 
 had not torn her gown badly. 
 
 At last she suffered herself to be per- 
 suaded, and the two young athletes from 
 Columbia College and Harvard stood 
 before her side by side, and she rested 
 a sunburnt hand lightly on the shoulder 
 of each, and then they struck out to- 
 gether, swimming high out of the water, 
 so as to support her, while little Mat 
 Hitchcock went on ahead as a pilot to 
 
12 
 
 
 
 clear the way; and thus she was con- 
 voyed safely to her destination, the ca- 
 pricious surf sparing her hair. 
 
 The young man watched while the 
 girl was towed to the raft and helped 
 up to a seat upon it. Then, with a 
 half-sigh of regret that he did not 
 have the pleasure of her acquaintance, 
 he dived again into a big wave, and 
 swam out steadily and sturdily beyond 
 the life boat and around it and back 
 again. ! 
 
 Half an hour later he walked up the 
 steps of the Casino, and found himself 
 face to face with an old friend. 
 
 “ Miss Marlenspuyk!” he cried. 
 
 “Warren Payn, I declare!” was her 
 response. “I am really glad to see 
 you. Come and get me a chair, and 
 sit down beside me and tell me all you 
 know.” 
 
 “Tm afraid that won’t take me long,” 
 

 
 “LITTLE MAT HITCHCOCK”? 
 
Sr OS da 
 es a) 
 V<. ¥ 
 < 
 Ce} 
 
 _—  ™ 
 
 * 
 
 
 
13 
 
 
 
 he answered, as he followed the cheery 
 old maid out on the terrace. 
 
 The sight of her wrinkled face, with 
 its crown of silver-gray hair and its 
 wonderful blue eyes twinkling with 
 good-humor, made the young man feel 
 at home at once. He got her a com- 
 fortable arm-chair, and he put another 
 before her to serve as a footstool, and 
 then he sat down beside her. 
 
 ‘And how are you?” he began. 
 
 “1? she returned, briskly. “I’m 
 as well as any old woman of seventy 
 has a right to be: ve my hair and my 
 teeth and my eyes still, and I can sleep 
 nights. What more can I expect? But 
 you— you look run down. Are you 
 here for the summer?” 
 
 “No,” he responded; “I’m going to 
 spend my vacation in the Adirondacks. 
 I’m here only for the day—or for part 
 of the day really. Mr. Hoffman—” 
 
14 
 
 
 
 “JT thought that was his yacht!” she 
 interjected. 
 
 “The Jehadamanthus — yes,” Mr. 
 Payn went on. “ Mr. Hoffman — he’s 
 one of our vestrymen, you know—he 
 met me in the street yesterday morning, 
 and he said I looked tired, and that salt 
 water was what I needed. So he ecar- 
 ried me off. We were at New London 
 last night, we are here now, and we go 
 over to Newport at four o’clock; and I 
 take the night boat back this evening, 
 so as to be in time for my choir rehears- 
 al to-morrow evening.” 
 
 “You are still organist of St. Mar- 
 tha’s?”’ she asked. . 
 
 He nodded. “And our new rector 
 is a hard worker. He keeps the church 
 open all summer, and he has asked me 
 to give special Sunday-night choral ser- — 
 vices to attract the floating summer 
 population of the city.” 
 
15 
 
 
 
 “Well,” she said, laughing lightly, 
 “if you haven’t changed of late, you are 
 glad of the hard work.” 
 
 He smiled. “I don’t run away from 
 it, I hope,” he admitted. “And [ve 
 composed a new Te Deum since you 
 were at St. Martha’s last. When you 
 get back to town you must let me know 
 what morning you can come, and I'll do 
 it for you. It has been quite a suc- 
 cess. ve published it, and it is being 
 done in many of the best churches out 
 West.” 
 
 “ Let’s see,” she said, looking at him, 
 “how long is it since I had a chat with 
 you last?” 
 
 “It’s nearly a year,” he answered. 
 “T haven’t seen you since Mr. Hoffman 
 gave that reception to the Bishop of 
 Tuxedo.” 
 
 “Dear me!” said the old lady, “how 
 time flies nowadays! A year, is it? 
 
16 
 
 
 
 Well, well! And you must be twenty- 
 seven or twenty-eight now ?” 7 
 
 “Tm just thirty,” he returned. 
 
 “Thirty!” she echoed; “and not 
 married yet? Of course not, or I should 
 have heard of it. Not engaged either?” 
 
 “Not yet,” he replied, “and Pm in 
 no hurry to be married.” 
 
 “Then you had better not stay here 
 
 long,” she retorted; ‘this place is just 
 full of pretty girls, and nice girls 
 too.” : 
 “T saw a pretty girl on the beach,” 
 he said; “a charming girl; a South- 
 erner, I should think, by her accent. I 
 trod on her dress, and she forgave me 
 very sweetly. I almost wish I was go- 
 ing to stay here long enough to make 
 her acquaintance.” 
 
 “ Describe her to me,” Miss Marlen- 
 spuyk commanded. 
 
 “Well,” he began, “she was rather 
 
a 
 
 
 
 short, I think, with light-brown hair and 
 a good figure—” 
 
 “JT suppose that means she- was 
 plump?” the old maid interrupted. 
 “You men somehow seem to detest 
 slim women.” 
 
 Mr. Payn laughed. “ Yes,” he ad- 
 mitted, “I think you might fairly call 
 this girl plump. But she was so young 
 and fresh and wholesome—oh, I wish I 
 could describe her properly! but I can’t.” 
 He paused for a second, and suddenly 
 his face lighted up. “But I can do 
 better than describe her—I can show 
 her to you.” 
 
 “Where?” asked the old maid, sharp- 
 ly, raising her glasses. 
 
 “There,” the young man answered, 
 “in the window on the stairs, looking 
 down onus. Don’t you see? Up there 
 —with that little Mat Hitchcock by her 
 side.” 
 
 2 
 
18 
 
 
 
 Miss Marlenspuyk lifted her eyes lei- 
 surely, and caught sight of the young 
 lady whose dress Mr. Warren Payn had 
 torn that morning. The girl was framed 
 in the broad window, on the edge of 
 which she was sitting. By her side her 
 young brother leaned forward, peering 
 down on the crowd below. Just behind 
 her stood Mr. Mather Hitchcock. 
 
 “Ts that the girl you mean?’ Miss 
 Marlenspuyk asked. ‘The one in the 
 white sailor suit ?” | 
 
 “That’s the one,” he responded, ea- 
 gerly. “Whoisshe? I know you know 
 everybody.” 
 
 “JT know her—and I knew her great- 
 grandfather,” the old maid answered, 
 lowering her glasses. ‘ She’s the Royal 
 Marine.” 
 
 For a moment the young man looked 
 
 at his companion in mute astonish- 
 
 ment. 
 
19 
 
 
 
 “The Royal Marine?” he repeated at 
 last. i 
 
 “Yes,” said Miss Marlenspnyk, “ that’s 
 what Ieall her. Didn’t you see the V.R. 
 and the British crown on her sleeve?” _ 
 
 “JT noticed it,’ Mr. Payn acknowl- 
 edged. ‘But I supposed she was wear- 
 ing an imported dress, and—” 
 
 “But what business has any Ameri- 
 can girl got with Queen Victoria’s mon- 
 ogram ?’ asked Miss Marlenspuyk, ener- 
 getically. ‘If American girls are going 
 to wear british crowns on their arms, 
 what was the good of Bunker Hill and 
 the Fourth of July and the Surrender 
 of Cornwallis.” 
 
 “ Really I don’t know,” said the mu- 
 sician, smiling at her intensity. 
 
 “ That’s why I call her the Royal Ma- 
 rine,” the old maid declared. ‘‘She’s a 
 dear good girl, and I’m very fond of her 
 —but she’s a Royal Marine for all that!” 
 
 
 
20 
 ® 
 
 “And what do you call her little 
 brother —for I saw he had ‘H. M.S. 
 Victory’ on his hat?” 
 
 “ Disousting, isn’t it?’ Miss Marlen- 
 spuyk replied. ‘I suppose I must call 
 him Her Majesty’s Midshipmite.” 
 
 “Royal Marine or not,” said the 
 young man, looking up at the window, 
 “she’s just as pretty as she can be.” . 
 
 “That’s nothing to her credit,” the 
 old maid declared. “Tm just as pretty 
 as I can be, too—so we all are—but it 
 doesn’t do us much good, does it? The 
 Royal Marine is pretty because she can’t 
 help it; she was born so. So was her 
 mother before her—and at the same age 
 her grandmother was the best-looking 
 of the three. That’s her grandmother 
 over there talking to Judge Gillespie,” 
 and with a gesture she indicated a hand- 
 some old lady, over whose chair an old 
 beau was bent in conversation. 
 
 
 
21 
 
 
 
 “J know Judge Gillespie, of course,” 
 Mr. Payn responded. “He’s one of 
 our vestrymen too. But I don’t know 
 Grandma—lI don’t even know her name 
 —or her granddaughter’s name, for that 
 matter.” 
 
 “Wer granddaughter’s name is Carroll 
 —Hectorina Carroll,” said Miss Marlen- 
 spuyk. 
 
 “ Hectorina?’ Mr. Payn repeated. 
 
 “ Hectorina,” she returned. ‘It isan 
 odd name, I admit—Hectorina Carroll. 
 She’s no kin to Charles Carroll of Car- 
 rollton, but for all that she’s a terrapin 
 girl.” 
 
 “ A terrapin girl?’ echoed the young 
 man, helplessly. 
 
 ‘A Baltimorean, I mean,” she ex- 
 plained. ‘I call all these Marylanders 
 terrapin girls—and they are a very good- 
 looking lot, the terrapin girls here this 
 year.” 
 
22 
 
 
 
 “Tf Iam to judge by that specimen,” 
 Payn assented, “ ve no doubt you are 
 justified.” 
 
 “ Hectorina is one of the prettiest 
 of them, of course,” said Miss Marlen- 
 spuyk, “but she is one of the nicest of 
 them too. Some of them are mere 
 fashion plates—‘ Casino costume from 
 Worth, hat from Virot’—you know 
 what I mean.” 
 
 Payn smiled, and acknowledged that 
 he had met that kind of young woman. 
 
 « And some girls intended by nature 
 to be pretty,’ Miss Marlenspuyk con- 
 tinued, “come out here in the sunlight 
 with hand-painted faces that wouldn’t 
 deceive a blind man. No doubt these 
 are not the nice girls; they are body- 
 snatchers, mostly.” 
 
 “What?” cried the young man, again - 
 astonished. ‘ Body-snatchers ?” 
 
 “You know what I mean—girls who 
 
23 
 
 
 
 can’t let a man go by without reaching 
 out for him. That’s what I call them— 
 body-snatchers,” the old maid explained. 
 
 Mr. Warren Payn laughed pleasantly. 
 “T must study your private vocabu- 
 lary,” he said; “you have a nice de- 
 rangement of epitaphs. The ‘ Royal 
 Marine’ is a ‘terrapin girl,’ I see, but 
 she is not a ‘body-snatcher.’ Tm glad 
 of that, I confess.”’ 
 
 While Miss Marlenspuyk and Mr. 
 Warren Payn had been discussing the 
 different classes of terrapin girls, the 
 Royal Marine and Her Majesty’s Mid- 
 shipmite and Mr. C. Mather Hitchcock 
 had disappeared suddenly. They were 
 now seen threading their way through the 
 throng of chairs on the veranda, mak- 
 ing for the spot where Mrs. Carroll sat 
 chatting with Judge Gillespie. | 
 
 As the Royal Marine took a chair by 
 the side of her grandmother, while little 
 
24 
 
 
 
 Mat Hitchcock broke into a hasty con- 
 versation with Judge Gillespie, Miss 
 Marlenspuyk caught sight of them. 
 
 ‘“‘T suppose they are getting together 
 to go into the dining-room,” she said, 
 rising. “Judge Gillespie is giving a 
 luncheon to Mrs. Carroll this morning.” 
 
 “JT wish I were going to take in Miss 
 Carroll,” the composer declared. 
 
 “Mr. Hitcheock will do that, proba- 
 bly; he has been asked, I know,” the 
 old maid returned, moving towards the 
 veranda. ‘Come, and I will introduce 
 you to her.” 
 
 As they drew near to the group Payn 
 overheard Hitchcock say, “Vm very 
 sorry indeed, but I don’t see what I 
 can do.” 
 
 The Judge’s response was inaudible, 
 but obviously he was annoyed. He 
 bowed to Miss Marlenspuyk as he 
 stepped up on the veranda, and he 
 
25 
 
 
 
 stared at her companion, and then sud- 
 denly recognizing him, shook him heart- 
 ily by the hand. 
 
 “Mr. Warren Payn it is, isn’t it?’ he 
 cried. ‘I’m very glad to see you, very 
 glad indeed.” Then he turned to Hitch- 
 cock again, and said, “ Well, if you must 
 go, of course there’s no help for it.” 
 
 Miss Marlenspuyk presented Mr. War- 
 ren Payn to Mrs. Carroll and to Miss 
 Carroll. The girl had risen to give Miss 
 Marlenspuyk her chair. The old maid 
 took it, leaving the two young people 
 standing side by side on the edge of the 
 veranda. 
 
 “JT hope I did not tear your dress 
 very badly, Miss Carroll,” said the young 
 man. 
 
 “Oh dear no,” she answered, smiling. 
 “T can fix it in ten minutes.” 
 
 He noticed that her accent was Bal- 
 timorean, but her voice was not s0 
 
26 
 
 
 
 shrill as that of the average Maryland 
 girl. 
 
 ‘Are you here for the whole sea- 
 son ?” he asked, after a pause. 
 
 “T reckon so,” she replied. ‘“ Grand- 
 ma likes it here.” 
 
 “T don’t wonder,” he responded. 
 “This is my first visit to Narragansett 
 Pier, and it strikes me as a very pleas- 
 ant place. The bathing is delight- 
 fai: 
 
 “T saw you swimming round the 
 boat,” she said. “I wish I could swim; 
 but I don’t like to get my hair wet.” 
 
 “You don’t need to swim,” he re- 
 turned, “if you are always as well cared 
 for as this morning.” 
 
 “Did you see me towed out?’ she 
 laughed. “It was very good of them, 
 wasn't it? I did so want to see how 
 the beach looked from the raft. Mr. 
 Hitchcock suggested it.” 
 
27 
 
 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock and Mr. Payn there- 
 upon exchanged perfunctory nods. 
 
 Warren Payn had known little Mat — 
 Hitcheock for years, and had never been 
 able to discover why he detested the 
 fellow; he began now to have a reason. 
 
 There was an interval of silence, 
 and then Miss Carroll turned to Payn 
 again. 
 
 “Have you come , for the season, Mr. 
 Payn ?”’ she asked. 
 
 “Only for the afternoon, I’m sorry 
 to say,” he answered. “I’m here on 
 Mr. Hoffman’s yacht. My real vacation 
 doesn’t begin till next month.” 
 
 “Tm so sorry,” she said, simply. “Id 
 hoped you were going to stay. You see, 
 there are so few men at the Pier yet.” 
 
 After a second’s hesitation the young 
 man answered: ‘‘ My plans are all un- 
 settled now. I was going to the Adi- 
 rondacks, but I really don’t know what 
 
28 
 
 
 
 I shall do. Perhaps I may be able to 
 come here, after all.” 
 
 “Mr. Payn,” called the Judge, “can 
 I have a moment with you?’ 
 
 He led the young man aside, and 
 said: “JI want you to do me a favor— 
 if you will? Mrs. Carroll has kindly 
 consented to honor me with her com- 
 pany at luncheon to-day, and so has 
 Miss Marlenspuyk, and also Miss Car- 
 roll. I’m expecting Dr. Pennington, of 
 St. Boniface’s—Philadelphia, you know; 
 he will be here in a moment; and now 
 Mr. Hitchcock, who was to have taken 
 the sixth place, is suddenly summoned 
 to see Mr. Hoffman on business. I 
 know I have no right to ask you now, 
 but you will put me under an obligation 
 if you will join us.” 
 
 The young man smiled, and respond- 
 ed, “If I can be of any service to you, 
 Judge, you may command me.” 
 
29 
 
 
 
 “Thank you,” said Judge Gillespie. 
 “T am delighted that you can make one 
 of us.” 
 
 And so it was that, after all, Mr. War- 
 ren Payn, and not Mr. Mather Hitch- 
 cock, took the Royal Marine in to lunch- 
 eon that day. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 LITTLE MAT HITCHCOCK’S CRABBING - PARTY 
 
 Wuen Mr. Warren Payn gave up his 
 trip to the Adirondacks and went to Nar- 
 ragansett Pier to spend the month of his 
 vacation he was quite honest with him- 
 self; he confessed frankly that it was 
 the Royal Marine that attracted him. 
 He suspected that he loved her. More 
 than once before, in other summers, had 
 he thought that he was in love with 
 some other pretty girl, and always be- 
 fore the end of the summer he had dis- 
 covered that though he might like the 
 young lady very well indeed, he did not 
 really love her. This time the symptoms 
 were different, and they seemed to indi- 
 cate that the heart was actually affected 
 
31 
 
 
 
 at last. For one thing, he developed an 
 acute jealousy whenever any of the other 
 young men who were summering at 
 Narragansett Pier came near Miss Hec- 
 torina Carroll, going off with her for a 
 walk to the Rocks, or taking her for a 
 drive to Point Judith, or making up a 
 party for a sail across the bay. He de- 
 voted himself to her absolutely, and so 
 far as possible he prevented the approach 
 of Mr. Mather Hitchcock, for example, 
 or any other of the sparse male popula- 
 tion of the Pier. 
 
 It was only when they were all in 
 bathing together that Mr. Hill-Bunker, 
 the young man with the crimson H on 
 his bathing-shirt, or Mr. Beeckman 
 Bleecker, the young man with the light 
 blue C, was able to get within arm’s- 
 length of the young lady from Balti- 
 more, and even then Mr. Warren Payn 
 was within arm’s-length also. If two 
 
32 
 
 
 
 pairs of mixed doubles were arranged at 
 tennis, he manceuvred openly to be her 
 partner, and if he was forced to play 
 against her, his side was certain not to 
 win a set, no matter how skilful or how 
 determined his fair ally might be. On 
 the rainy days he would lure her over to 
 the bowling-alley, choosing her balls for 
 her and advising her on every doubtful 
 roll. On the two nights a week when 
 there were hops at the Casino he came 
 with her, carrying Grandma’s cloak ; and 
 he managed generally to get the first 
 dance and the last, and more than his 
 share of those intervening. 
 
 They danced together very well. She 
 was short, and he was not tall. Perhaps 
 it should have been recorded earlier that 
 he had dark eyes and dark hair, and that 
 he wore a full dark mustache. He was 
 not a handsome man exactly, but he was 
 not ill-looking, and he carried himself 
 
33 
 
 
 
 well. As it happened, he danced very 
 well, and the Royal Marine was very 
 fond of dancing, and this it was which 
 gave him his first advantage with her, 
 and led them to an earlier intimacy than 
 would have been brought about other- 
 wise. 
 
 But although she was always willing 
 to dance with him, she treated him very 
 much as she treated all the other young 
 men. She did not encourage him at all; 
 she did not seem even to be conscious of 
 his attentions. She was glad to see him 
 when he joined her on the veranda of 
 the Casino in the evening to listen to the 
 music, or on the lawn of the little church 
 after service on Sunday; she greeted 
 him cordially always; but then her man- 
 ner was just as frank and just as hearty 
 towards Judge Gillespie, towards little 
 Mat Hitcheock, towards Mr. Hill-Bunk- 
 
 er, and towards Mr. Beeckman Bleecker. 
 3 
 
34 
 
 
 
 Whenever he was foiled in his effort to 
 monopolize the Royal Marine’s society, 
 he failed to enjoy even the full share of 
 it which fell to him when she had two 
 or three other young men dancing at- 
 tendance on her. Unless he had her all 
 to himself he was not happy. He was 
 not disagreeable under these circum- 
 stances ; he was not sulky; but he talked 
 little, and took only the slightest part in 
 the dialogue. It seemed as though it 
 was only in a duet that his vocal or- 
 gans could be heard to advantage, their 
 strains being too delicate and evasive to 
 hold their own in the concerted pieces 
 of general conversation. 
 
 Whenever he was wholly deprived of 
 the privilege of her company—that is to 
 say, whenever she was invited to a little 
 dinner at the Casino and he was not; 
 whenever she went off for a day’s sail in 
 a yacht belonging to a man he did not 
 
 ~ 
 
 _. 
 \ ns 
 
35 
 
 
 
 know; whenever she accepted one or an- 
 other of the invitations that came to her - 
 now and again to go over to Newport toa 
 luncheon or a dance—whenever anything 
 of this kind bore her temporarily be- 
 yond his reach, he was disconsolate. He 
 wandered melancholy along the Rocks, 
 or he sat solitary on a chair on the ve- 
 randa of the Casino, sunk in moody 
 meditation. 
 
 Of course the Royal Marine herself 
 did not know the state to which he was 
 reduced by her absence, but now and 
 then one of the other girls would notice. 
 Sometimes they would tease him about 
 it unobtrusively. Once one of them 
 was kind-hearted enough to tell ’Rina 
 when she came back from Newport how 
 much Mr. Payn had evidently missed 
 her. That evening at the hop she re- 
 ceived him more coldly than ever be- 
 fore; it was indeed the very first time 
 
36 
 
 
 
 that she had made any distinction of any 
 kind between him and her other admir- 
 ers. Perhaps if he had been an observer 
 only, and not a lover wholly, he might 
 have interpreted aright this sudden chill- 
 ing of her manner, and he might have 
 been elated rather than cast down that 
 she allowed little Mat Hitchcock to 
 carry Grandma’s shawl that evening, 
 and to eseort them back to the hotel 
 when at last the music ceased and the 
 lights in the ball-room were lowered. 
 For a dozen or more years Mr. Math- 
 er Hitchcock had made it a point to be 
 very attentive to the two or three pret- 
 tiest girls at the Pier. It was surmised 
 that every year he had proposed to two 
 of them at least, and that if he was still 
 a bachelor it was not his fault, but the 
 fault of the score or more of lovely spin- 
 sters who had refused to marry him. To 
 none of the young ladies to whom he 
 
 
 
37 
 
 
 
 had been devoted had he ever been 
 more devoted than to the Royal Marine. 
 To none of their other admirers had he 
 ever felt as he felt towards Mr. Warren 
 Payn. For one thing, he had never for- 
 given the new-comer for having arrived 
 just in time to take his place at Judge 
 Gillespie’s little luncheon. More than 
 once was Mr. Hitchcock annoyed to see 
 Mr. Payn sitting next to Miss Carroll 
 at some impromptu dinner or supper to 
 whieh he (little Mat) was not invited. 
 More often still—for he was known to 
 all the cottagers and to all the regular 
 visitors to the Pier—he had himself the 
 satisfaction of sitting opposite to Miss 
 Carroll at some such feast, while the 
 new-comer, not so well known, was left 
 out of the list of guests. Once when, 
 as it chanced, they were neither of them 
 asked on a certain yachting trip which 
 was to take all day, little Mat saw how 
 
38 
 
 
 
 desolate the organist looked, how for- 
 lorn, how deserted, and in the contem- 
 plation of his rival’s misery he forgot 
 his own disappointment. Towards the 
 end of August, Hitchcock was even 
 moved to get up a crabbing expedition, 
 carefully arranging that Payn should 
 not be included ; and as the merry party 
 drove past in two elongated buckboards, 
 he had the malign pleasure of seeing the 
 composer smoking a solitary cigar on the 
 terrace of the Casino. 
 
 That solitary cigar lasted Warren 
 Payn nearly two hours. Often as he 
 relighted it his thoughts wandered five 
 minutes later, and the neglected cigar 
 revenged itself by going out. The 
 musician had always been given to day- 
 dreaming. Perhaps a certain introspec- 
 tive absent- mindedness is one mani- 
 festation of the artistic temperament. 
 Perhaps no man is really an artist— 
 
39 
 
 
 
 painter or composer or what not—who 
 has not the power of isolating himself 
 and of becoming wholly oblivious of 
 his surroundings, of being swept along, 
 as it were, on the current of his own 
 thoughts. These periods of mental hiber- 
 nation, so to speak, the young musician 
 had found to be the necessary concomi- 
 tants of his periods of artistic productive- 
 ness. During these hours of apparent 
 sloth his mind was often most active. 
 On the day of little Mat Hitchcock’s — 
 crabbing party, for example, he sat on 
 the terrace of the Casino for three hours, 
 speaking to no one, lighting his cigar 
 every quarter of an hour, and looking 
 steadily out to sea. His body was still, 
 but his mind was active. Though his 
 feet did not move, his thoughts had put 
 “on seven-league boots and were striding 
 across the world. When he was tired 
 of thinking of her he thought of him- 
 
40 § 
 
 
 
 self, and he wished he were a Prince 
 Charming, young and beautiful and 
 mighty, that he could come before her 
 as a conqueror and lay himself at her 
 feet. He built many an Aladdin’s pal- 
 ace that he might beseech her to share 
 it with him, planning it in accordance 
 with what he knew of her tastes in 
 house-keeping. Possibly Alnaschar was 
 also a composer of music—one does not 
 know, although one does know that he 
 was never able to produce his greatest 
 composition. 
 
 When Warren Payn had made an 
 end of his day-dreams at last, and had 
 thrown away his cigar, not yet half 
 smoked, he got up from the chair and 
 started to return to his hotel. As he 
 passed the door of the ladies’ room of 
 the Casino he found himself walking by 
 the side of Miss Marlenspuyk. 
 
 “Well,” she said, smiling, “do you 
 
 
 
41 
 
 
 
 think that I look like Ariadne, that you 
 have deserted me so long ?” 
 
 For a moment he stood stock - still, 
 not yet awake to the world about him; 
 then he recovered himself and knew 
 where he was. 
 
 “Do I look like Bacchus?” he re- 
 turned. “If I look as I feel, I must 
 look even soberer than usual.” 
 
 “ Oh, I don’t object to sobriety,” she 
 responded, as they passed down under 
 the broad bridge into the road, and 
 turned towards the long line of ho- 
 tels. “I shouldn’t like the Pier if it 
 were a brandy-and-watering place, as 
 Saratoga is. But perhaps you are car- 
 rying austerity to the very verge of 
 boastfulness. Does the Royal Marine 
 like you to be as serious as you are 
 
 ~ now?” 
 
 “I wish I could be sure that the Royal 
 Marine liked me even a little,’ he an- 
 
 - 
 
42 
 
 
 
 swered, “and I’d be as serious as she 
 chose.” 
 
 ““T don’t know whether she likes you 
 or not, and of course I shouldn’t tell 
 you if I did,” the old maid replied. 
 “But I do know that she is not a girl 
 to take gray views of life. At her age 
 and with her looks she has no use for 
 sad-colored garments. Mr. Hitchcock 
 said yesterday that her smile was like 
 the Moonlight Concerto, and her laugh 
 was like a wedding-march.” 
 
 “Oh, he said that, did he?” the com- 
 poser inquired. ‘ What does he know 
 about concertos, I should like to know 2” 
 
 “T don’t like Mr. Hitchcock any 
 better than you do,” said Miss Marlen- 
 spuyk, “and yet I don’t know why. 
 Perhaps because I am not one of the 
 girls he has asked to marry him; so I 
 feel assured of his bad taste. And of 
 his ignorance of music, and of most 
 
# 
 
 43 
 
 
 
 other things, [ have nodoubt. Indeed, 
 if ignorance is bliss, I don’t know any 
 one who has better right to be happy 
 than Mr. Mather Hitchcock.” 
 
 “Yes,” the composer returned, with 
 a little laugh, partly at her joke and 
 partly at his own; “a fellow has no 
 right to be as ignorant of anything as 
 that little Mat Hitchcock is of every- 
 thing. He must have spent four years 
 at some college conscientiously acquir- 
 ing ignorance —for no man was ever 
 born knowing so little as he does.” 
 ' “What has he been doing to you to- 
 day ?’ asked the old maid, her wonder- 
 ful eyes twinkling humorously as she 
 looked the composer in the face. 
 
 “What has he been doing to me?” 
 repeated the young man. “ He has been 
 getting up a crabbing- party for Miss 
 Carroll, and he didn’t let me in.” 
 “Dutch treat, I suppose?” she in- 
 
44 
 
 
 
 quired, Mat Hitchcock’s frugality being 
 familiar to all his friends. 
 
 “¢ Oh, of course,” he answered ; “ little 
 Mat isn’t giving parties at his own ex- 
 pense. He doesn’t care for a dollar any 
 more than he does for his life.” 
 
 Miss Marlenspuyk laughed. “I’ve 
 known him generous enough to give 
 himself away,” she said. “And ’m 
 afraid you are giving yourself away now 
 by your warmth. It’s none of my busi- 
 ness, of course, but I’m old enough to 
 be your grandmother, and you can con- 
 fide in me if you think it would relieve 
 your feelings. Are you really in love 
 with my young friend, the Royal Ma- 
 rine ?”’ 
 
 When Miss Marlenspuyk made this 
 kindly suggestion she did not know 
 what it was she had exposed herself to, 
 for the young lover saw his opportunity 
 to talk of the woman he loved and of 
 
45 
 
 
 
 himself and of his hopes and fears and 
 his doubts and his despairs. She lis- 
 tened in sympathetic silence while he 
 poured out his feelings. 
 
 When at last he paused, ashamed that 
 he had talked so freely, and yet relievéd 
 that he had found some one to whom he 
 could express himself without reserve, 
 Miss Marlenspuyk said: “ Well, you are 
 in love. There’s no doubt of that, is 
 there ?”’ 
 
 “Sure,” he answered. ‘ There’s no 
 doubt at all.” 
 
 “Do you want to marry her?’ asked 
 the old maid. 
 
 “Don’t I, just?” returned the young 
 man. “ Why, I’m dying to—” 
 
 “Well,” interrupted Miss Marlen- 
 spuyk, “if you want her to marry you, 
 why don’t you ask her? You have 
 known her nearly a month, and the 
 days at the sea-side in summer are twice 
 
46 
 
 
 
 as long as they are in town in winter, 
 and so we get to know people twice 
 as fast. Besides, this is the last week 
 of August, and to-night is the last hop 
 of the season, and next week everybody 
 will be packing up.” 
 
 “T know,” he returned, sadly. “ My 
 own vacation will be up next week.” 
 
 “ And I heard Mrs. Carroll say to- 
 day they were soon going to the White 
 Mountains for a fortnight,” the old lady 
 continued. 
 
 “She isn’t going to take her grand- 
 daughter with her, is she ?” asked Payn, 
 hurriedly. 
 
 “ She isn’t going to leave her behind,” | 
 Miss Marlenspuyk replied. ‘“ You may 
 be sure of that. No, there is no use 
 waiting, it seems to me. Now is your 
 time. You are going to play your Te 
 Deum to-morrow, I hear—though you 
 didn’t tell me—” 
 
 
 
47 
 
 
 
 “ Oh, Miss Marlenspnyk, forgive me,” 
 he cried, piteously. ‘I meant to let you 
 know in time—indeed I did.” 
 
 “Well, I do know in time,” she re- 
 sponded, smiling gently, “and I shall be 
 there to hear it. And so will the Royal 
 Marine. Why not walk home with 
 her ?—I will take charge of Mrs. Car- 
 roll—and you can ask her to be your 
 wife half a dozen times between the 
 church and the hotel.” 
 
 “Once will be enough, I’m afraid,” he 
 answered. “I know I’m so unworthy 
 of her, and—and, oh, I don’t believe she 
 cares for me at all!” 
 
 “Tf that’s your state of mind,” the 
 old maid declared, “I wouldn’t put it 
 off till to-morrow. [dask her to-night 
 at the hop. Take her out on the end 
 of the bridge just before the last dance. 
 Then you can know your fate before 
 you sleep again.” 
 
48 
 
 
 
 “Tf she were to accept me,” he said, 
 “JT should be too happy to sleep for a 
 week. But she won’t accept me; I 
 know she won’t—she doesn’t care for 
 me at all, does she 2?’ 
 
 “ How should I know?” asked Miss 
 Marlenspuyk. “If you want an an- 
 swer to that question, you had best 
 put it to the one person who really 
 knows.” 
 
 “TJ will!” the young man declared, for- 
 cibly. ‘I will! Pll take your advice, 
 and I’m ever so much obliged to you 
 for making me see what’s best for me 
 to do. You are a true friend, Miss 
 Marlenspuyk. Tl] ask her to-night at 
 the hop—or else to-morrow after 
 church.” 
 
 At this last evidence of his irreso- 
 lution Miss Marlenspuyk smiled again. 
 They had now come to her hotel, and 
 she held out her hand. 
 
49 
 
 
 
 ‘Thank you for seeing an old woman 
 safely home,” she said. 
 
 He grasped her hand and cried, “ Oh, 
 you don’t know how much I love her!” 
 
 “ Don’t tell methat,”’ shesaid. ‘I?m 
 a woman myself, and I don’t like to 
 hear any other woman so belauded. 
 Tell that to her. Tell that to the Royal 
 Marine !” 
 
 With another smile of encourage- 
 ment she left him and went up the 
 short asphalt walk to her hotel. 
 
 4 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE HOP AT THE CASINO 
 
 Tue architects of the Casino at Nar- 
 ragansett Pier fully understood the 
 great principle that when a ball-room is 
 built for use In summer it is not the 
 ball-room itself which is important, but 
 the covered promenades connected with 
 it, since dancing in July and August 
 is scarcely more than an excuse for a 
 walk in the moonlight and the open air 
 immediately before and after every 
 waltz. The ball-room of the Narragan- 
 sett Casino is not strikingly beautiful, 
 it is not well ventilated, and its entrance 
 is poor and stunted, but in its series of 
 galleries and verandas it is unsurpass- 
 able. A broad covered gallery, a sort 
 
 
 
51 
 
 
 
 of second-story veranda, too long and 
 too imposing to be called a loggia, 
 stretches from the door of the ball-room 
 along the full length of the building, 
 and communicates with the unrivalled 
 promenade afforded by the top of the 
 arch across the road—a promenade 
 which extends out even a little beyond 
 the tower that rises almost from the 
 edge of the water. This spacious prom- 
 enade over the bridge and beyond, open 
 to every breeze, and illuminated only 
 by an occasional red-bulb electric light, 
 has seats here and there along its sides 
 and in its many odd corners. 
 
 When Mr. Warren Payn came ont on 
 the bridge promenade before the hop 
 began on this last Saturday in August, 
 and saw the broad face of the moon ris- 
 ing red from the waters of the bay be- 
 fore him, he felt the charm of the place ; 
 and as he listened to the silvery plash 
 
52 
 
 
 
 of the waves in the little cove below; 
 he had to confess to himself that no bet- 
 ter spot for a proposal could be found 
 anywhere. It was a warm night, and 
 the breeze which swept languidly across 
 the bay was mild and balmy, but at the 
 thought of the question he had deter- 
 mined to put to Miss Hectorina Carroll 
 that evening the young man shivered. : 
 
 He looked at his watch. It was not 
 yet half-past eight, and the music would 
 not begin till nine. As the Pier was 
 overcrowded that week, those who want- 
 ed the best seats in the ball-room had 
 already begun to arrive. He could see 
 them passing along the upper gallery ~ 
 in groups of three and four. He knew 
 that Mrs. Carroll liked a special corner 
 out of the draught, and he guessed that 
 the Royal Marine would therefore be 
 among the first to arrive. He threw his 
 cigar far out on the rocks below him, 
 
 
 
53 
 
 
 
 and walked back across the bridge. 
 Once inside the building he took his 
 position at the head of the stairs, that 
 he might catch sight of her as soon as 
 she should appear. He stood near the 
 window in which he had seen her framed 
 the first day they met, now more than 
 a month ago. Only a month had he 
 been at the Pier, and it had gone very 
 swiftly, and yet he felt as if he had 
 known her for years—indeed, as if he 
 had always known her. He remem- 
 bered his astonishment that first day 
 when Miss Marlenspuyk had told him 
 that the girl whose dress he had trod- 
 den upon. was the Royal Marine, and 
 he recalled Judge Gillespie’s delightful 
 luncheon that afternoon when he sat 
 beside her for two hours, and he smiled 
 when he recollected the alacrity with 
 which he had given up his camping-out 
 in the Adirondacks to spend his vacation 
 
54 
 
 
 
 cooped up in a single absurd little room 
 just under the roof of a hotel at the Pier. 
 
 Mrs. Carroll and ’Rina were at one 
 of the smaller and older hotels, where 
 the wretched rooms were reserved for 
 the same people year after year; and so 
 the composer had found it impossible to 
 get in at that house. For the first fort- 
 night after his arrival he went to her 
 hotel every day, and often twice a day ; 
 but when he saw that the other young 
 ladies from Baltimore—and the house 
 was filled with “terrapin girls,” as Miss 
 Marlenspuyk had called them—when he 
 saw that others noticed the frequency 
 of his calls, a sense of delicacy kept 
 him away. He met her quite as often, 
 perhaps, on the beach and at the Casino; 
 but he came to the house more rarely, 
 for it seemed to him almost vulgar to 
 parade his love before the groups of gos- 
 sipers—old maids and wives and widows 
 
 
 
55 
 
 
 
 —who rocked all day on the verandas 
 of the hotel. 
 
 He chanced to know that Judge Gil- 
 lespie was to escort the Royal Marine 
 and her grandmother to the Casino that 
 evening, and so he had kept away. He 
 had sent her a simple little bunch of 
 sweet-pea blossoms, of the pale and gen- 
 tle hues which she liked, and which har- 
 monized most becomingly with her fresh 
 complexion. After his modest nosegay 
 had been delivered he had happened to 
 see little Mat Hitchcock buying a large 
 bouquet of roses. As he stood there at 
 the head of the Casino stairs waiting 
 for her to come he wondered whether 
 she would wear his flowers or Hitch- 
 cock’s. He wondered also how it was 
 that so nice a girl could tolerate a fel- 
 low like Hitchcock. 
 
 When at last he caught sight of her 
 his heart sank, for he saw that she was 
 
56 
 
 
 
 carrying the roses in her hand. But 
 when she and her grandmother came to- 
 the top of the stairs and she greeted him 
 with her sweetest smile, and thanked 
 him for the lovely flowers he had sent 
 her, and showed them to him pinned to 
 her dress in a fragrant bunch, then his 
 spirits rose again, and little Mat Hitch- 
 cock’s big bouquet ceased to have any 
 significance for him, even though she 
 should carry it in her hand all the even- 
 ing. 
 
 They were in time to secure Mrs. 
 Carroll the seat she preferred, and to 
 see the dancers arrive and fill up the 
 three rows of chairs, while the shallow 
 balconies above were crowded with mere 
 spectators. Narragansett Pier is like 
 many another watering-place in that it 
 is passing through a period of change. 
 Once upon a time it was rather free 
 and easy in its ways; and its gayety was 
 
 
 
57 
 
 
 
 perhaps even a little noisy, though harm- 
 less enough. Now it has become staider 
 and more dignified, and yet a memory 
 lingers of the former freedom. Time 
 was, for example, when a dress-coat was 
 unknown at the Pier, and when a man 
 who might dare to don such a garment 
 would have been made to feel that he 
 was unsuitably attired. Even now there 
 were a few men in sacks and cut-aways 5 
 but the most of them had dressed for 
 the occasion, some with the white tie 
 and the clawhammer, and some with 
 the black cravat and the hybrid jacket 
 which is known as a “ Tuxedo coat.” 
 This was the garment Mr. Warren Payn 
 wore. 
 
 Among the girls there was a like di- 
 versity of costume. Two or three ma- 
 ture dames wore the full evening dress 
 of modern society ; ten or a dozen girls 
 came in their hats; the most of the 
 
58 
 
 
 
 young ladies were clad in the simple 
 light dresses in which the American 
 woman looks most charming. Among 
 these was the Royal Marine, who wore 
 a white muslin gown, with broad blue 
 ribbons floating out behind as she walked 
 briskly into the ball-room. The dress 
 was neat and becoming. The young 
 man who loved her thought that he had 
 never seen her look more beautiful. It 
 even seemed to him that he detected an 
 unusual animation about her. Perhaps, 
 however, this was nothing more than the 
 high spirits proper to a popular young 
 woman at the last hop of the season, 
 when she knew she looked at her best, 
 and when she was certain of a good 
 time. 
 
 After the seats were all taken, and 
 after the cloud of young men gathered 
 about the door began to thicken, one by 
 one the musicians appeared upon the 
 
 
 
59 
 
 
 
 stage, the scenery on which was supposed 
 to represent a garden in some: hitherto 
 undiscovered country ; leisurely they ar- 
 ranged the stands for their music, re- 
 gardless of the impatience of the expect- 
 ant young ladies. Finally, as the clock 
 of the Casino struck nine in irregular 
 cadence, the leader waved his bow and 
 began the first waltz of the last hop of 
 the season. 
 
 Mr. Warren Payn and Miss Hectorina 
 Carroll were almost the earliest couple 
 on the floor, and they would have danced 
 through the whole waltz if the Royal 
 Marine had not remembered that she 
 had promised a turn to Judge Gillespie. 
 For the next dance little Mat Hitchcock 
 claimed her. 
 
 “As soon as I saw those flowers I 
 knew Mr. Hitchcock would come early 
 to be thanked,” said Miss Marlenspuyk, 
 who had arrived a little late, and who 
 
 —.- 
 
60 
 
 
 
 now occupied a chair Mrs. Carroll had 
 reserved for her. “I suppose you gave 
 her the sweet-peas ?” 
 
 The musician admitted it. 
 
 “Are you going to speak to her to- 
 night ?’ she asked, lowering her voice. 
 
 “If I get a chance I will,” he an- 
 swered. , 
 
 “Tf you don’t get a chance to-night,” 
 she returned, “you had better make 
 one to-morrow. I sha’n’t forget my 
 promise to carry off Grandma. But I 
 suppose you could play your Te Deum 
 with much more fervor to-morrow if 
 to-night the Royal Marine promises to 
 marry you.” 
 
 He was about to reply when he saw 
 little Mat Hitchcock and Miss Carroll 
 drop out of the dance. “ Excuse me,” 
 
 he cried hurriedly to Miss Marlenspuyk, 
 
 as he sprang forward and asked her for 
 a turn. Then he whirled her to the 
 
61 
 
 
 
 other end of the ball-room almost be- 
 fore little Mat could drop into the seat 
 beside Mrs. Carroll, to receive that 
 lady’s compliments on the taste with 
 which he had chosen ’Rina’s bouquet. 
 
 The next dance the Royal Marine 
 divided between Mr. Hill-Bunker and 
 Mr. Beeckman Bleecker; and the com- 
 poser did not get his share. He sat 
 through the waltz by the side of Miss 
 Marlenspuyk. 
 
 “Are you invited to the supper to- 
 night ?” she asked. 
 
 “No,” he answered. ‘Is Miss Car- 
 roll going ?” 
 
 “JT believe she is. It has been got 
 up inahurry. Mr. Dexter—that Chi- 
 cago widower, you know— he is giving 
 it to La Marguerite.” 
 
 “Now who is La Marguerite?” he 
 laughingly inquired. 
 
 “Don’t you know Virgie Chubb ?” 
 
62 
 
 
 
 was Miss Marlenspuyk’s question in re- 
 sponse. ‘“ She’s dancing now witlr Mr. 
 Hitcheock.”’ | 
 
 Payn looked across the floor and saw 
 that little Mat’s partner was a tall, thin 
 girl, blue-eyed and red-haired, with a 
 large mouth and a long upper lip. 
 
 “Pve met her,” he acknowledged. 
 
 “Well, I heard one of you young men 
 say she was ‘a daisy,’ and so, of course, 
 I called her La Marguerite.” 
 
 The musician smiled, and asked, “I 
 wonder what nickname you will have 
 for me next ?” 
 
 “When I find one that fits you as 
 well as La Marguerite fits Virgie Chubb 
 I will cap you with it,’ Miss Marlen- 
 spuyk responded. ‘I confess I do not 
 understand her success this year here, 
 for she is nobody in particular, and she 
 is inclined to be rather rapid. Now, 
 generally, at Narragansett a girl has to 
 

 
 “LA MARGUERITE ” 
 

 
 nee 
 
 Bs 
 
 | 
 a 
 .: 
 
 
 
63 
 
 
 
 have a very good social standing before 
 she can afford to be at all fast.” 
 “T saw her out with a pair-of ponies 
 
 and a buckboard this afternoon,” said 
 
 Payn, “and if that is her ordinary gait 
 she is very rapid indeed. I thought 
 
 is the heavy man with her would be thrown 
 
 
 
 out as they turned the corner of the Ca- 
 
 sino.” | 
 
 _) “Yes, she drives well,” admitted the 
 
 old maid. “So did her father, if what 
 
 Tam told is true.” 
 
 “Did he drive a T-cart too?’ Payn 
 asked. 
 
 _ “No,” Miss Marlinspuyk gravely re- 
 plied ; “he used to drive a milk-cart.” 
 The musician laughed, and then the 
 
 old maid laughed with him. 
 
 “I suppose,” said the young man, 
 “that the father’s former calling is the 
 reason the daughter is now trying to 
 get into the créme de la créme of society.” 
 
64 
 
 
 
 Just then the music ceased, and Payn 
 saw Beeckman Bleecker returning the 
 Royal Marine to Grandma.  Hastily 
 begging Miss Marlenspuyk to excuse 
 him again, the musician sprang up and 
 asked Miss Hectorina if she would like 
 to take a little walk out on the bridge 
 to see the moonlight on the bay. Mrs. 
 Carroll threw a shawl over her grand- 
 daughter’s shoulders as the girl took the 
 arm of the man who was desperately in 
 love with her. 
 
 “?Rina,’ said Grandma, “don’t sit 
 down, for it is damp out there; and 
 don’t be long, or I shall have to send 
 some one after you; {’m so nervous 
 about your having rheumatism, like 
 your poor father had.” 
 
 ““T won’t be jong; Grandma,” the girl 
 promised. 
 
 As the young couple went up the 
 steps at the entrance and out on the up- 
 
 
 
65 
 
 
 
 per veranda, Payn asked her if she was 
 going to the supper after the hop. 
 
 “Yes,” she answered. “I’m going, 
 even if it is given to Virgie Chubb. 
 But I don’t like her—that is, I don’t 
 like her right much. She used to go to 
 school with me in Baltimaw’, and she 
 said my nose was like eternity —it had 
 no end.” | 
 
 Payn resented this assertion indig- 
 nantly. 
 
 “Oh, I didn’t mind,” the Royal Ma- 
 rine interrupted. “ Virgie Chubb would 
 say anything if she thought it was clev- 
 er. She’s very clever, if she is o’nery. 
 Miss Ma’lensptiyk says that the Chubbs 
 were poor white trash.” 
 
 Her little Southern accent filled him 
 with delight, and her local locutions fell 
 on his ears as though they were the 
 words of a charm. 
 
 “She isn’t any older than I am,” Miss 
 
 Bae! 
 
66 
 
 
 
 Hectorina continued, “and they say she’s 
 going to marry that Mr. Dexter, who is 
 a widower with six children. Now I 
 couldn’t do that—could you? Id feel 
 like I was marrying an orphan asylum.” 
 
 It seemed to Warren Payn as if the 
 occasion he was seeking was perhaps 
 within his grasp. 
 
 “Of course I shouldn’t want you to 
 marry a widower, either with six chil- 
 dren or without any,” he began. “I 
 think a widower should always marry a 
 widow; don’t you?” 
 
 “‘T suppose that would be fairer,” she 
 responded. ; 
 
 “ What kind of a man do you expect 
 your husband to be?” he asked, trying 
 to lead up somehow to the avowal he 
 wished to make. 
 
 ‘Oh—I don’t know, really,” she re- 
 turned. “I’m afraid I should be very 
 exacting.” 
 
67 
 
 
 
 “ Well—” he began again, seeing his 
 opportunity at last. 
 
 But just at that moment the Royal 
 Marine was hailed by another young 
 woman promenading on the arm of an- 
 other young man. 
 
 “Oh, ’Rina!” cried the other young 
 woman, whom a dim electric light en- 
 abled Payn to identify vaguely as La 
 Marguerite —“’ Rina, you are coming 
 to my supper after the ball, ain’t you?” 
 
 “Yes, indeed,” answered Miss Hecto- 
 rina, heartily. 
 
 “Tm so glad,” continued Miss Virgie 
 Chubb, “because Mr. Dexter was so anx- 
 ious to have you come. He declared 
 that everybody said you and I were the 
 belles of the Pier this season !” 
 
 And with that Miss Virgie left them. 
 
 “The spiteful thing!” said Miss Hec- 
 torina. 
 
 And the young man who was seeking 
 
68 
 
 
 
 a chance to tell her he loved her and to 
 ask her to be his wife recognized at once 
 that the propitious moment had passed. 
 
 They crossed the bridge, and stood 
 out on the balcony which projects over 
 the rocks. A moonglade silvered the 
 broad waters of the bay. Between Nar- 
 ragansett and Newport could be seen 
 the knotted string of faint electric lights 
 which revealed the passing of the night 
 boat on its voyage from Providence to 
 New York. Just as the young people 
 stepped out on the balcony the red-fire 
 was ignited on the rocks before them, 
 and then the distant steamboat blew her 
 whistle three times in strident acknowl- 
 edgment of the salute. 
 
 ‘“‘TIsn’t it like a splendid scene at the 
 theatre?” said the Royal Marine at last. 
 “Tt is too romantic to be real !” 
 
 “It is somewhat theatrical, I admit,” _ 
 responded the composer. “But this 
 
 
 
69 
 
 
 
 baleony would be a little too lofty for 
 Romeo to climb, even if he had love’s 
 light wings.” 
 
 “T don’t like ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ do 
 you ?” she asked. 
 
 “Don’t you?” he replied, beginning 
 . to see another opening in the distance 
 before him. “ Why not? Isn’t Romeo 
 the very type of an ardent lover? Isn’t 
 Juliet—” 
 
 “But it’s Juliet I don’t like,” inter- 
 rupted the young lady. ‘She was too 
 forward, I think. I don’t know any- 
 body who’d behave like she did, do you? 
 Why, she didn’t wait half long enough. 
 She told him she loved him really before 
 he had proposed, didn’t she? Juliet’s a 
 leap-year girl—that’s what I call her.” 
 
 “T don’t want to defend Juliet,” he 
 responded. ‘ You see, I’m not Romeo, 
 and it’s not Juliet I’m in love with—you 
 must know that!” 
 
40 
 
 
 
 There was no mistaking the meaning 
 of this last sentence. 
 
 They had been leaning over the railing 
 of the balcony. Now when Mr. Payn 
 spoke these last words, Miss Carroll stood 
 upright suddenly. 
 
 “It’s getting chilly here, isn’t it?” she 
 asked, very hurriedly, and in obvious 
 perturbation. 
 
 “Don’t go yet, ’Rina—I may eall you 
 Rina?’ he urged. “I have something 
 I must say to you. [—” 
 
 “Miss Hectorina,” said little Mat 
 Hitcheock, still ten feet away from 
 them, but eagerly advancing, ‘“ your 
 grandmother is very anxious about you. 
 She sent me to bring you in.” 
 
 “T’m coming at once,” she answered. 
 
 Little Mat was about to offer his arm, 
 when Payn said: “I brought Miss Car- 
 roll out, and I will take her back. We 
 need not trouble you, Hitchcock.” 
 
Mt 
 
 
 
 “ Tt’s no trouble, I assure you,” Hitch- 
 cock explained. 
 
 And the young lady walked back to 
 the ball-room escorted by both men. So 
 Payn saw a second opportunity slip out 
 of his hands without any fault of his 
 own. 
 
 And Mrs. Carroll would not hear of 
 her granddaughter’s going out on the 
 bridge again all that evening. Payn 
 danced with her more than once; but 
 no man can propose while waltzing ata . 
 hop. 
 
 When eleven o’clock came and the 
 music ceased, the Royal Marine said 
 good-night to Mr. Payn and went down 
 to Mr. Dexter’ssupper. Payn gave Mrs. 
 Carroll his arm to her hotel. Then he 
 came back to the Casino, and strolled out 
 on the bridge again. He found a chair 
 in a corner, and he lighted a cigar and 
 sat down to think over the events of the 
 
72 
 
 
 
 evening and to plan his campaign for 
 the next day. . 
 
 As he had passed the dining-room of 
 the Casino he had heard Virgie Chubb’s 
 loud laughter ring out sharply, and he 
 was grieved that the woman he loved 
 should be in company he did not ap- 
 prove of. La Marguerite was not the 
 associate he would have chosen for her, 
 nor was Mr. Dexter the man he would 
 have selected as her host. The young 
 New-Yorker did not like Dexter, who 
 had been a lawyer somewhere in Cali- 
 fornia before he blossomed out in Chi- 
 cago as one of the boldest operators 
 in the wheat-pit. There was a coarse 
 heartiness about the Westerner which 
 was attractive to many, and which prob- 
 ably accounted for the success Dexter 
 had met with in the smart set of London, 
 where he had been received with open 
 arms two or three years before; but to 
 
 
 
73 
 
 
 
 Warren Payn the man was most distaste- 
 ful. In the musician’s fastidious eyes 
 Miss Virginia Chubb and Mr. Cable J. 
 Dexter were well matched when they 
 were together. But Miss Hectorina 
 Carroll was made of a different clay, 
 more delicate and a finer quality; and 
 she had no business to be in their society 
 more often than mere chance might ar- 
 range it. 
 
 Miss Hectorina Carroll was the centre. 
 of his thought as he sat on the bridge 
 of the Casino, with the single eye of 
 the Beavertail light gazing at him, and 
 with the double stare of the Brenton’s 
 Reef lightship fixed upon him. He re- 
 proached himself with timidity, with 
 procrastination, with insufferable irreso- 
 lution. It was not his fault that Virgie 
 Chubb had interrupted him once and 
 that little Mat Hitchcock had interfered 
 a second time; but it was his fault that 
 
74 
 
 
 
 he had not made a third opportunity, 
 and a fourth, and a fifth, if need had 
 been. He knew now that he should 
 have forced fortune to aid him. He re- 
 solved that when another chance should 
 come within his reach he would seize it 
 swiftly. 
 
 He heard the hour of midnight tolled 
 with pleasing irregularity by the mellow 
 bell of the Casino, and he was still re- 
 solved never again to be irresolute. How 
 long he sat there he did not know, for 
 finally he dropped off to sleep in the 
 middle of his rearrangement of the past 
 and of his dreams for the future. 
 
 Then suddenly it seemed to him that 
 he was wide-awake again, and that the 
 supper was over, and some of the party 
 were coming out on the bridge for a final 
 glimpse of the moonlit bay. The loud 
 voices of Virgie Chubb and Dexter were 
 unmistakable; and then Payn thought 
 

 
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75 
 
 
 
 he caught the girlish langh of the wom- 
 an he loved. He started back into the 
 shadow as some of the party stepped 
 out on the baleony. He recognized the 
 slight figure of a married sister of Mr. 
 Beeckman Bleecker’s, who had been ma- 
 tronizing the young ladies Mr. Cable J. 
 Dexter had entertained at supper. Be- 
 hind the matron of the party Payn saw 
 Miss Hectorina Carroll. He stepped 
 forward and said that he was very glad 
 to see her once more. She did not seem 
 surprised to meet him again at that hour. 
 Leading her to a corner of the broad 
 promenade away from the others, he de- 
 clared that he had been trying all the 
 evening to tell her that he loved her, 
 and that he would be a most miserable 
 man unless she would marry him. It 
 seemed to him that she was taken wholly 
 by surprise, and that she hesitated for 
 a moment, and that finally she told him 
 
76 
 
 
 
 that she really did not know what to 
 say, for she was wholly unprepared for 
 his proposal, and although she liked him 
 very well, she did not know whether she 
 loved him at all. Payn was encouraged 
 that she did not reject him absolutely, 
 and he urged his suit ardently. Finally 
 she agreed to give him his answer on Mon- 
 day evening, and during the two inter- 
 vening days she promised to investigate 
 her feelings, and to discover whether she 
 did not really love him a little already. 
 Then she bade him to go back to his 
 dark corner, for she would not have Vir- 
 gie Chubb guess what had been going 
 on —no, not for worlds! She did not 
 forbid him to come to see her during 
 the two days of her self-examination, 
 and finally she permitted him to kiss 
 her hand. Then she left him and went 
 back to the others. Payn sat silently 
 in the shadow, listening to the laughter 
 
77 
 
 
 
 of the young ladies at the outbreaks of 
 Dexter’s easy humor. At last the ma- 
 tron declared that it was time for girls 
 to go to bed; and then they went down- 
 stairs, all in high spirits as becomes a 
 supper-party—all except the Royal Ma- 
 rine, to whose silence Virgie Chubb 
 made a jocular allusion as they were 
 passing out of hearing. 
 
 Every word of this brief conversation 
 of his with the woman he loved was 
 present to Payn’s memory as he sat in 
 his chair in the corner, with his cigar in 
 his hand—a cigar extinct and only half 
 smoked. When the clock of the Casino 
 struck one he roused himself with an 
 effort. He had been asleep again. 
 
 Then all at once he found himself 
 wide-awake, and wondering whether he 
 had been to sleep more than once— 
 whether he had not been dreaming when 
 he thought he saw her return, and when 
 
78 
 
 
 
 he told her that he loved her, and when 
 she promised to give him a final answer 
 in forty-eight hours. Had the Royal 
 Marine really stood before him after the 
 Supper was over? Had he really pro- 
 posed? Or was it all an hallucination on 
 his part? Before now, more than once, 
 his visions had taken on the sharpness 
 of reality ; and he had long lingered in 
 doubt as to whether some of them were 
 actual occurrences or mere phantasms 
 of the fancy. None had been more 
 vivid than this; none had ever had the 
 
 importance of this; and none had ever — 
 
 puzzled him as this did. 
 
 It was very late when at last he went 
 to bed, worn out with perplexity and 
 vexed by a problem he found insoluble. 
 Finally he recalled the well-known habit 
 of dreams to repeat themselves, and he 
 determined to submit the question to this 
 test, and to abide by the result. If he 
 
 The 
 
79 
 
 
 
 should dream again the whole interview 
 with Hectorina, his proposal and her 
 promise of a decision on Monday, then 
 it had been but a dream the first time; 
 it was untrue; it had not happened. If, 
 on the other hand, he did not dream it 
 again, then it was true; it had happened; 
 she knew that he loved her; and she 
 would give him his answer in forty- 
 eight hours. 
 
 Having thus resolved, he tumbled into 
 bed. But he did not dream, as he was 
 not able to sleep. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE MORNING SERVICE AT THE CHURCH 
 
 Tue next morning, at a quarter before 
 eleven, when the bell ceased to ring in 
 the unfinished tower, the little stone 
 church at Narragansett Pier was crowd- 
 ed to the doors, as it always is in the 
 month of Angust. The day was hot 
 with a mellow summer heat, but an oc- 
 casional breeze which blew lazily from 
 behind Point Judith rustled the branch- 
 es of the young maples beside the church, 
 and rippled the varying greenness of the 
 ivy which clad the rough stone walls of 
 the sacred edifice. Within the building 
 there was an increasing fluttér of fans. 
 
 Miss Hectorina Carroll sat with her 
 brother and her grandmother in a pow 
 
 
 
81 
 
 
 
 on the centre aisle, almost exactly ona 
 line with the organ, in front of which’ 
 Mr. Warren Payn had taken his place 
 long before the congregation began to 
 arrive. In the pew behind her were 
 Miss Marlenspuyk and Judge Gillespie, 
 and also Mr. Mather Hitchcock and his 
 mother. On the other side of the aisle 
 Miss Virgie Chubb occupied the fore- 
 most pew, having next to her, and to re- 
 lieve the flippant levity of her floating 
 draperies, the solid figure of Mr. Cable 
 J. Dexter. Not far from these were Mr. 
 Hill-Bunker with Mr. Beeckman Bleeck- 
 er’s married sister, and Mr. Beeckman 
 Bleecker with the unmarried sister 
 of Mr. Hill-Bunker. Here and there 
 throughout the church were scattered 
 most of the girls whose acquaintance 
 Warren Payn had made during his four 
 weeks’ stay at the Pier. But he was not 
 
 conscious of them. The Royal Marine 
 6 
 
82 
 
 
 
 had been one of the first to arrive, and 
 as the musician had seen her enter the 
 door he had turned to the organ, reso- 
 lutely refusing to meet her eye. In the 
 state of doubt in which he found him- 
 self he simply did not dare to look her in — 
 the face. He did not know whether he 
 had told her that he loved her or not; 
 he did not know whether she had lis- 
 tened to him or not; he did not know on 
 what footing he stood; indeed, he seemed 
 to walk in slippery places and to go in 
 danger of an irreparable fall; he felt 
 himself to be tied in a tangle of doubt 
 and difficulty. 
 
 As the service advanced he became 
 calmer. Though he did not look at the 
 Royal Marine, he asked himself whether 
 or not she had seen him, half hidden as 
 he was at the side of the church. When 
 the time came at last for his Te Deum, 
 and the organist slipped out from before 
 
 
 
83 
 
 
 
 the instrument and offered the place to 
 him, he wondered whether she had no- 
 ticed the substitution. Of course he 
 had told her about his Te Deum—what 
 can young men talk about but their own 
 deeds?—and she had been kept informed 
 of the difficulties which had arisen to 
 delay its performance. She had been 
 enlightened as to all the peculiarities of 
 all the singers of the amateur quartet 
 who were to render it. She was familiar 
 with the conceit of the tenor, with the 
 selfishness of the soprano, with the jeal- 
 ousy of the contralto, and with the stu- 
 pidity of the bass. She had been indig- 
 nant at their want of appreciation for 
 his music, and she had laughed heart- 
 ily at his account of the wiles whereby 
 he had soothed the vanity and suscepti- 
 bility of the singers. 
 
 As the quartet stood up beside him he 
 put her out of his thoughts for the mo- 
 
84 
 
 
 
 ment, and concentrated his attention on 
 the execution of his composition. As 
 often happens, the singers did better 
 than he had expected; even the bass 
 remembered for once the suggestions 
 which he had forgotten regularly at 
 every rehearsal. And the composer’s 
 share of the work was excellent; his 
 music was fresh and firm; it was scholar- 
 ly and yet modern; it was truly dramat- 
 ic, asa Te Deum ought to be, without 
 being in any way operatic and theatri- 
 cal, as so many Te Deums are; it was 
 not great, for Warren Payn was not a 
 great composer, but it was not common- 
 place; it had a certain individuality, not 
 to call it originality. It had also what 
 much modern music composed for the 
 services of the church lacks absolutely— 
 it had fervor; and while the singers were 
 rendering it far better than the compos- 
 er had hoped, he felt relieved of all his 
 
 
 
85 
 
 
 
 own worries and anxieties. For the mo- 
 ment at least he was lifted out of him- 
 self. 
 
 But after the Te Deum was ended, 
 when he had given up the seat at the 
 instrument tothe organist, and when the 
 service went on, the artistic excitement 
 which had buoyed him up faded away, 
 and he was reduced again to a condition 
 of miserable doubt. Even when the good 
 old bishop went into the pulpit and gave 
 out his text, “‘ Love one another,” and 
 began to deliver the sermon, Warren 
 Payn was not able to concentrate his 
 attention on the wise words of the prel- 
 ate, who was addressing himself directly 
 to the modern men and women he saw 
 before him, and who set forth a lofty 
 ideal in the plainest and most common- 
 sense manner. The composer had a seat 
 by the organ, and he had right before 
 him and not twenty feet away the pro- 
 
86 
 
 
 
 file of the woman he loved. At first he 
 scarcely ventured to glance at her, but 
 when he saw that she was intent on the 
 preacher, and unconscious of anybody 
 else, he was emboldened to let his eyes 
 rest on her longingly. She was listen- 
 ing to the sermon, gazing steadily at the 
 bishop. Her lover gazed steadily at her, 
 listening but little. 
 
 As she sat there before him, while the 
 summer sunlight filled the church, he 
 thought that he had never seen her look- 
 ing more lovely or more lovable. She 
 sat erect in the pew, her firm, full figure 
 carrying her head vigorously and grace- 
 fully. Her large eyes were fixed on the 
 bishop, and her color came and went in 
 response to the simple eloquence of the 
 sermon. Her dress—of which her lover 
 took but little note, save that he had 
 a confused impression of a medley of 
 green and brown and white, one tender 
 
87 
 
 
 
 tint melting into another and mingling 
 with it inextricably—set off the fresh- 
 ness of her young complexion. The 
 delicate tones of her attire made him 
 see a sudden likeness to a flower, the 
 calyx being her broad white straw hat 
 with its warped and flaring brim. To 
 the man whose eyes were fixed upon 
 her with loving devotion she seemed as 
 pure as the blossom of a vine in the 
 spring-time, and he noted with delight 
 the tiny tendrils of hair which escaped 
 from her broad braids, and curled care- 
 lessly about her neck here and there and 
 down over her forehead. 
 
 When he had made an end of staring 
 —that is, when he was suddenly strick- 
 en with remorse at the rudeness of 
 which he had been guilty—he glanced 
 about, wondering how it was that every 
 one in the church was not also looking 
 at her, The young musician flushed 
 
88 
 
 
 
 with indignation when he discovered 
 that Mr. Dexter had settled himself 
 sideways so that he could see Miss Car- 
 roll without the trouble of turning his 
 neck, and that the Westerner was taking 
 advantage of this attitude most of the 
 time. Farther back and on one side 
 Warren Payn saw Mr. Hill-Bunker and 
 Mr. Beeckman Bleecker, and he saw 
 that they were both looking at the Roy- 
 al Marine as often as they dared.  Lit- 
 tle Mat Hitchcock, too, rarely took his 
 eye off her. When Payn detected these 
 things he was annoyed that he had to 
 share the sight of her with others. He 
 wished that he had the right to tell 
 them all that she belonged to him, and 
 that if they wished to gaze at her bean- 
 ty they must ask his permission ; and he 
 did not know whether he would grant 
 the privilege or refuse it. . 
 The sermon drew to its conclusion. 
 
 
 
89 
 
 
 
 The Royal Marine was still listening 
 with unflagging interest, only now and 
 again taking her attention from the 
 preacher to keep Her Majesty’s Mid- 
 shipmite in order, and to remind him of 
 the sanctity of the edifice wherein they 
 were. Perhaps she was not wholly un- 
 conscious of the admiring glances cast 
 upon her, for she was aware that her 
 gown and her hat were both becoming 
 to her; but she did not pay these tokens 
 of admiration the return compliment of 
 seeming to see them. She kept her 
 eyes fixed on the bishop; not once did 
 they wander towards the organ, where 
 the man who loved her was sitting in 
 self-torment. He dreaded to meet her 
 eye, and yet he could not understand 
 how it was that she never once glanced 
 in his direction all that morning. He 
 wished that he could go to her boldly 
 and demand her reasons for refusing to 
 
90 
 
 
 
 look at him. Then he remembered the 
 meeting on the bridge of the Casino the 
 night before—if, indeed, there had real- 
 ly been any meeting—and all his doubts 
 came back upon him again with redoub- 
 led force. He did not know how to ap- 
 proach her, and therefore he did not 
 dare make an effort to speak to her. He 
 was sure, in fact, that he ought to avoid 
 speaking to her. A shiver of fear seized 
 him, and he resolved to keep away from 
 her until he could find out just what 
 had happened the night before. 
 
 Then the bishop brought his sermon 
 to an end at last, and the rector gave — 
 out a hymn. While this was being sung 
 Warren Payn saw Miss Marlenspuyk 
 looking at him intently. She was close 
 behind the Royal Marine. He under- 
 stood at once what she meant. She had 
 promised to help him to a quiet talk 
 with the woman he loved. She had 
 
91 
 
 
 
 agreed to lure away Grandma, so that 
 he could walk home from church with 
 ’Rina, and propose to her then and there. 
 But this agreement was made before he 
 had gone to sleep on the bridge of the 
 Casino. When he had made it he want- 
 ed to be left alone with the Royal Ma- 
 rine; now there was nothing he was 
 more afraid of. Unfortunately it was 
 impossible to convey to Miss Marlen- 
 spuyk across the crowded pews of the 
 church any information as to this com- 
 plete change of his wishes. She was 
 firmly convinced, of course, that he still 
 desired a chance to tell the young lady 
 that he loved her. Being so convinced, 
 she would surely so manceuvre as to ac- 
 complish her purpose. She was arbi- 
 trary, as the lover knew; and she was 
 adroit ; and what she had determined to 
 do was likely to be done. She would 
 certainly arrange an interview between 
 
92 
 
 
 
 him and the Royal Marine, despite his 
 utmost endeavor. If he came within 
 her reach after service it would be im- 
 possible for him to escape her. She 
 would carry out his supposed desires 
 unfailingly and unflinchingly, no. mat- 
 ter how he might struggle to prevent 
 it. 
 
 While the congregation were singing 
 the doxology he came to a resolution. 
 He dared not face ’Rina then, and as the 
 only way to prevent Miss Marlenspuyk 
 from bringing about a meeting he made 
 up his mind to remain in church until 
 the congregation had dispersed. He 
 determined not to leave his harbor of 
 refuge near the organ until he was as- 
 sured that the coast was clear. There- 
 fore when there was a general move- 
 ment after the benediction he sat still. 
 He refused to catch Miss Marlenspuyk’s 
 eye, or to accept the invitation it con- 
 
 en 
 
 
 
95 
 
 
 
 veyed. He was glad that the old maid 
 and Judge Gillespie and the Royal Ma- 
 rine and Her Majesty’s Midshipmite and 
 Grandma all made ready to move down 
 the centre aisle together. If Miss Mar- 
 Jenspuyk had been nearer to him he 
 knew he would have been unable to re- 
 sist her. As it was, she seemed sur- 
 prised that he did not come forward at 
 once to join them, and she made excuses 
 for delay, so as to give him ample op- 
 portunity. Then, when at last the little 
 group started towards the door of the 
 church, Miss Marlenspuyk put up her 
 glasses for a final glance in his direction. 
 To all these mute but obvious entreaties 
 he remained insensible, and the party 
 passed down the aisle, and left him still 
 at the organ in apparent unconscious- 
 ness of their presence. It seemed to 
 him that there was an expression of sur- 
 _ prise which flitted for a moment across 
 
94 
 
 
 
 the face of the woman he loved as she 
 saw that he failed to come forward to 
 join her. 
 
 As Cable J. Dexter and Virgie Chubb 
 passed before the organ they both looked 
 at the musician and smiled quizzically. 
 That smile puzzled him. What did it 
 mean? What did they know? They 
 had been at the.Casino the night before, 
 and perhaps they had overheard his pro- 
 posal—that is,if he had proposed. Their 
 smile could not mean that they sus- 
 pected the strange dilemma in which he 
 was placed. That was impossible, of 
 course; and yet there was something in 
 their expression which he could not ex- - 
 plain. In his perplexity he turned and 
 looked after them, and framed in the 
 stone doorway, standing in front of the 
 broad wooden doors decorated with iron 
 anchors, recalling those on the skirt of 
 the yachting-dress in which he had first 
 
95 
 
 
 
 seen her, was the Royal Marine, who 
 had paused to say good-morning to La 
 Marguerite. 
 
 In haste he turned his back to the 
 door, and addressed himself to the quar- 
 tet, who had also lingered. He thanked 
 them for the trouble they had taken 
 with his Te Deum ; and he listened po- 
 litely to the suggestion of the soprano 
 that if she ever sung it again there were 
 two bars of her solo that she hoped he 
 would transpose for her, as she at least 
 was not afraid of taking a high note. 
 Then, when they also were gone, so- 
 prano and tenor, contralto and bass, the 
 composer delayed the organist in need- 
 less talk for ten minutes longer, for fear 
 that Miss Marlenspuyk might have de- 
 vised some means of detaining the Roy- 
 al Marine. 
 
 When at last he ventured forth, and 
 was walking swiftly towards his hotel, 
 
96 
 
 
 
 looking neither to the right nor to the 
 left, he almost stumbled over Her Maj- 
 esty’s Midshipmite. 
 
 “Excuse me,” he stammered out, 
 scarcely daring to raise his eyes for fear 
 that the boy’s sister might be near at 
 hand. 
 
 “Oh, it’s Mr. Payn!” said the boy. 
 “ How are you?” 
 
 “Tm very well, thank you,” he re- 
 sponded. 
 
 “You don’t look well,” the boy re- 
 turned. “ You look scared.” | 
 
 “Do I?” he asked, helplessly. 
 
 “?Deed you do,” was the response of 
 Her Majesty’s Midshipmite, who had on 
 the sailor suit in which Payn had first 
 seen him, and the same sailor hat, with 
 H. M.S. Victory stamped in gold on its 
 band. 
 
 “T’m ina hurry,” explained the young 
 man. 
 
 iy Bt x 
 Treo aney, 
 
97 
 
 
 
 “Oh, I say, Mr. Payn,” the boy con- 
 tinned, “Sister “Rina was asking about 
 you this morning.” 
 
 “About me?” echoed the composer, 
 stopping abruptly in his walk. ‘ What 
 —what did she say ?” 
 
 “She was talking to Miss Chubb— 
 Virgie Chubb, you know—” 
 
 “Yes, I know, I know,” the young 
 man repeated. 
 
 “ And she said,” the boy went on— 
 “she said she wanted to know whether 
 you were awake yet. Had you been 
 getting up late, Mr. Payn ?” 
 
 But the boy got no answer to his ques- 
 tion, for Mr. Payn was striding away 
 impatiently. 
 
 7 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 MISS MARLENSPUYK’S READING-HOUR 
 
 Warren Payn freed himself from 
 Her Majesty’s Midshipmite as swiftly 
 as he could, and as courteously, for he 
 remembered always that the boy was 
 her brother. Then he walked rapidly 
 towards the beach. He knew that the 
 Royal Marine never “ went in” on Sun- 
 day, and a glimpse of the Casino clock 
 told him that the bathing-hour was al- 
 most past. On his way to the water he - 
 met the bathers swarming back to their 
 hotels for the early Sunday dinner. By 
 the time he was ready for his swim the 
 beach was almost deserted, save for a 
 few belated excursionists. The surf was 
 high and fierce, just what he would have 
 
 
 
99 
 
 
 
 wished it to be, and after he had bat- 
 tled with it for nearly half an hour he 
 felt as though he had washed himself 
 free of many doubts. Refreshed by 
 his watery exercise, he was able to take 
 a dispassionate view of his strange posi- 
 tion. 
 
 While he was dressing he made up his 
 mind to go and tell the whole story to 
 Miss Marlenspuyk. He was in dire want 
 of advice, and he felt also the irresistible 
 pressure of a desire to have a confidant. 
 And he knew no one to whom he could 
 go but the old maid, who had always 
 befriended him, and who, indeed, had 
 introduced him to the woman he loved. 
 Besides, Miss Marlenspuyk was a very 
 clever woman, and her advice was likely 
 to be worth taking. Having determined 
 to consult her and to act according to 
 her suggestions, the composer finished 
 his toilet and walked to the Casino. In 
 
100 
 
 
 
 his present frame of mind he was not 
 willing to sit through the long hotel 
 dinner, and to talk to his neighbors at 
 table on the usual personal topics, so he 
 went into the Casino and dined by him- 
 self. Then he smoked a cigar on one of 
 the rear verandas, undisturbed by any 
 one. At last the time came when he 
 knew that Miss Marlenspuyk, having 
 finished her dinner also, would have set- 
 tled down to read the Sunday papers, 
 which she used to call her Half-Hour 
 with the Worst Authors. 
 He found her alone in her favorite 
 corner at one end of the veranda of: her 
 hotel. She was seated in a little rock- 
 ing-chair ; she had on her neat little gold 
 spectacles; she held in her hand one 
 sheet of a Sunday newspaper, and the 
 other sheets lay in waves about her feet. 
 It was obvious that she had been read- 
 ing the latest news from Europe, and 
 
101 
 
 
 
 that some princeling or kinglet had been 
 getting himself into trouble. 
 
 “TJ don’t see,” she began, as the mu- 
 sician drew up a chair and took his seat 
 beside her—‘ I don’t see why the people 
 of Europe should be bothered with the 
 personal peculiarities of their royal fami- 
 lies. I never could understand why 
 one of the higher anthropoid apes could 
 not be trained to discharge all the func- 
 tions of a constitutional monarch—could 
 you ?” 
 
 He looked at her as though he did not 
 apprehend what she was saying. He 
 was so engrossed with his own perplex- 
 ity that he could not listen to anything 
 else. 
 
 “Miss Marlenspuyk,” he began, draw- 
 ing his chair a little closer, and speak- 
 ing in subdued tones, “can I tell you a 
 story ?” 
 
 Wait till ve taken my glasses off,” 
 
102 
 
 
 
 the old maid responded, ‘‘and then you 
 can tell me anything.” 
 
 “Thank you,” he began. 
 
 “ Indeed,” she interrupted, “ there are 
 several things I want you to tell me very 
 much. Why did you avoid me this 
 morning when I was keeping my prom- 
 ise to you—when I had Grandma under 
 _ control, so that you could walk with 
 Rina and ask her to marry you? Id 
 like to know what explanation you have 
 to offer of your extraordinary conduct. 
 Even before I hear it, I want to tell you 
 that I think you are a most negligent 
 and dilatory wooer. Perhaps you can 
 explain your strange behavior. I hope - 
 you can; but I assure you I shall be 
 very exacting and hard to please. Giv- 
 ing you this solemn warning, by way 
 of encouragement, I'll let you have 
 the floor—as they say in Washing- 
 ton.” 
 
 
 
3 
 
 103 
 
 
 
 Having said this, she took off her 
 spectacles, and put them into a little 
 leather case marked with her monogram. 
 Then she folded the portion of the news- 
 paper she had on her lap, and laid it on 
 the chair which supported her feet. 
 Picking up the other sheets of the paper 
 from the floor of the veranda, she folded 
 them also, one by one, and placed them 
 on top of the first portion. When she 
 had made an end of this she looked up 
 at the young man who was waiting 
 silent beside her. 
 
 “Well?” she said at last, with a rising 
 
 inflection. 
 
 Well,” he echoed, hesitating,“ I don’t 
 really know where to begin—” 
 
 “So I perceive,” she interrupted. 
 
 “But I suppose,” he gained courage 
 to say—“ I suppose I had best begin at 
 the beginning—” 
 
 “You had best begin somewhere,” 
 
104 
 
 
 
 she declared, “or you will never be able 
 to end at the end.” 
 
 “The real beginning is this, I think,” 
 he responded. “I’m absent - minded, 
 and I’m given to day-dreams, and so 
 sometimes I don’t really know whether 
 I’ve done something or whether Pve 
 only dreamed it.” 
 
 “As a girl, I used to dream that I 
 could fly,” said the old maid; “but when 
 I waked up I always knew I couldn’t. 
 dn fact, ’ve never been in doubt about 
 any of my dreams. But what have you 
 been dreaming about now, and how did 
 any dream prevent your proposing to 
 the Royal Marine this morning when I 
 had cleared the way for you?” 
 
 “That’s just it,” he explained, pite- 
 ously. ‘ve dreamed that Pve pro- 
 posed to her—or at least I may have 
 dreamed it, or I may have done it; I 
 don’t know.” 
 
 oe eee 
 
105 
 
 
 
 Miss Marlenspuyk turned and faced 
 him, and looked him full in the eye. 
 
 “ Well,’ she said at last, “I think you 
 had best begin at the very beginning 
 and tell me the whole story.” 
 
 So he told her the whole story, and 
 she listened intently, not interrupting 
 him once. When he had made an end 
 of his tale she drew a long breath. 
 
 “Do you mean to tell me,” she asked, 
 “that you really don’t know whether 
 you have proposed marriage to Miss 
 Hectorina Carroll or not?” 
 
 = That’s just it,” he urged. “I was 
 
 so dazed from dozing that ’m uncer- 
 tain whether I was asleep or awake at 
 the time when [ thought I was propos- 
 ing to her.” 
 
 “Why, [never heard of such a thing 
 
 in all my life!” she declared. 
 
 “No,” he admitted, with a pitiful pride. 
 “ I suppose it is a unique experience.” 
 
106 
 
 
 
 “ Unique?” she repeated. “I should 
 think so! Of course I know that every 
 man is the HOae of his own dreams, but 
 then—” 
 
 Apparently wor eh failed her, for she 
 broke off abruptly. 
 
 He sat silent, not knowing what to 
 say. 
 
 “Well,” she began again at last, “they 
 
 say it’s impossible to have both tact and 
 truth, and I’ve prided myself that I had 
 at least tact; but I must say that you 
 have put yourself into a most puzzling 
 predicament. What are you going to 
 do?” : 
 “That’s just what I came to you to 
 find out,” he said, imploringly. “ You 
 are my only friend, and you are so 
 clever, and I will do exactly what you 
 tell me.” 
 
 “But I don’t know what to tell you,” 
 she responded. 
 
107 
 
 
 
 “Perhaps I had best go straight to 
 Rina,” he suggested, “and throw my- 
 self on her mercy, and ask her whether 
 I have proposed to her—” 
 
 “ Certainly not!” declared Miss Mar- 
 lenspuyk—“ that is, if you do want to 
 marry her.” 
 
 “Of course I do!” he assured her. 
 
 “No girl would marry you,” the old 
 maid returned, “after you had confessed 
 to her that you really didn’t know 
 whether you had proposed to her or 
 not. You can see that for yourself. 
 You must not ask her. Indeed, you 
 mustn’t see her—you must keep out of 
 her sight until we can find out whether 
 you have asked her to marry you or 
 not. You say she didn’t accept you?” 
 
 “She didn’t accept me—no,” he an- 
 swered ; “but she didn’t reject me either. 
 She asked for time—and if I have time 
 too, I’m sure I can persuade her to love 
 
108 
 
 
 
 me, can’t 1? But I can’t if you won't 
 let me see her.” 
 
 “Do you suppose she would consult 
 Grandma?” asked Miss Marlenspuyk. 
 
 “T don’t know,” he replied. “She’s 
 very independent, you see. She does 
 her own thinking. But then she may 
 have told her grandmother, perhaps.” 
 
 “Tf she has told Grandma,” the old 
 maid declared, “I can find out, for Mrs. 
 Carroll won’t keep a secret from me— 
 that is, if I really want to know it. If 
 she has told Grandma, then we are all 
 right, because you will know that you 
 were awake when you proposed to her, 
 and that she is to give you an answer 
 to-morrow, and you can put forth all 
 your powers of persuasion in the mean- 
 time. But if she hasn’t told Grandma, 
 then we are no better off, because we 
 don’t know whether she is merely keep- 
 ing her own counsel, or whether you 
 
109 
 
 
 
 did propose in your sleep, after all. 
 Still, we have a chance, and I will seek 
 out Mrs. Carroll at once.” 
 
 “Thank you,” said the young man, 
 deeply grateful. 
 
 “ But we must not count on that; for, 
 as you said, the Royal Marine is very 
 independent,” Miss Marlenspuyk went 
 on. “And there really isn’t anybody 
 else to help us out; for when you pro- 
 posed—that is, if you did propose at all 
 —nobody heard you but ’Rina, and we 
 can’t ask her. Who else was at the sup- 
 per ?” 
 
 Payn gave her the name of Mr. Dex- 
 ter’s guests. 
 
 “ Virgie Chubb —I don’t like her ; 
 she has no manners at all,” said Miss 
 Marlenspuyk. “ But she is fond of hear- 
 ing herself talk. Perhaps I could cross- 
 question her without getting a crooked 
 answer.” 
 
110 
 
 
 
 “Do you think she overheard me pro- 
 pose?” asked the young man, recalling 
 the quizzical expression in the faces of 
 Mr. Dexter and Miss Chubb as they 
 had passed him in church that morning. 
 He flushed red at the thought of his 
 conversation with the woman he loved 
 having been heard by La Marguerite. 
 And yet at the same time he would have 
 been glad if he were absolutely sure 
 that she had overheard, for it would 
 release him from his uncomfortable un- 
 certainty. 
 
 “T think she is quite capable of lis- 
 tening,” said the old maid, “ whether 
 she heard anything of importance or not. 
 So is that Dexter man—though he is a 
 man, after all, and twice too good for 
 her. I will say for her, however, that 
 she has the grace to be a little afraid of 
 me. She knows who I am, of course, 
 and she will be greatly complimented if 
 
 
 
111 
 
 
 
 I stop and speak to her this evening 
 after tea. So if she knows anything I 
 ean find that out. And perhaps, as you 
 say, she did overhear your proposal— 
 that is, of course, if you did propose at 
 all, which is what we want to discover.” 
 
 Warren Payn could not but wince a 
 little every time Miss Marlenspuyk im- 
 paled him on the horns of his dilemma. 
 
 “ You are very good to me,” he said, 
 dolefully. 
 
 ‘Tm really very much interested in 
 your case,” she replied ; “ it is so extraor- 
 dinary that I want to know the end of 
 it, just as if it were a sensational novel.” 
 
 He looked at her plaintively. 
 
 “What am I to do,” he asked at last, 
 “while you are doing all these things for 
 me ?” 
 
 “Do? she answered. “You must 
 keep out of the way of the Royal Ma- 
 rine, for one thing.” 
 
112 
 
 
 
 “But Pve an engagement with her 
 for this afternoon,” he cried, sorrowful- 
 ly. “We are all going to the Rocks 
 together at five o’clock—she and I and 
 half a dozen more.” 
 
 “You had best let her and half a 
 dozen more go to the Rocks without you 
 for once,” Miss Marlenspuyk replied. 
 “In fact, you had best go way for 
 twenty-four hours.” 
 
 “Leave the Pier?’ he said, sadly. 
 ‘Where must I go?” 
 
 The old maid was touched by his will- 
 ingness to obey her. 
 
 “You need not go far,” she answered ; 
 “oo to Newport. And you need not 
 stay long; come back to-morrow after- 
 noon.” 
 
 “ But what reason can I give for go- 
 ing, and for breaking my engagement 
 to walk on the Rocks?” he asked. 
 
 She reached forward and picked up 
 
 
 
113 
 
 
 
 the folded Sunday newspaper on the 
 chair before her. 
 
 “Didn’t you tell me that you had 
 promised to explain to Mr. Joshua Hoff- 
 man all about the new organ you want 
 for St. Martha’s ?” she inquired. 
 
 “ Yes,” he answered. “ What of it ?” 
 
 “T suppose you haven’t read any of 
 the papers this morning?” she queried. 
 “Jf you had, you would have seen that 
 Mr. Joshua Hoffman is now at New- 
 port, and that he leaves there to-mor- 
 row, and that he starts on Tuesday for 
 Kurope, to be gone all winter. Now, go 
 back to your hotel, and write a non- 
 committal note to the Royal Marine, 
 telling her that you have to go over to 
 Newport at once to see Mr. Hoffman, 
 but that you will return in the morn- 
 ing, and that you hope to see her to- 
 morrow evening. So it will be all 
 
 right, whether you have proposed or 
 8 
 
114 
 
 
 
 not, and whether she has promised to 
 give you an answer to-morrow evening 
 or not.” 
 
 “T see,” he said, with a flash of re- 
 viving hope. 
 
 “Then,” she went on, “after you 
 have sent that note, you take a horse 
 and go over to Newport. I suppose you 
 had best see Mr. Hoffman if you can, 
 and tell him what he wants to know. 
 But go to the Ocean House, and as soon 
 as I have had a chat with Grandma and 
 a talk with La Marguerite I will tele- 
 graph you. Perhaps the telegram will 
 put you out of your misery, and per- 
 haps it won’t. But I will do my best 
 for you. Now be off with you!” 
 
 “J will go at once,” he said, rising 
 with alacrity. “Iwill do anything you 
 tell me. And how can I ever thank 
 you for all the trouble you are taking 
 for me ?” | . 
 
 \ > 
 Reds eed a . 
 Siete) er eee 
 
115 
 
 
 
 “ Well,’ the old maid answered, 
 “vou can repay me easily. If you ever 
 do propose to ’Rina, and she accepts 
 you, and you are married, you must 
 make her happy, and I shall be doubly 
 paid. She is a dear girl, and I am very 
 fond of her.” 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE CONCERT AT THE CASINO 
 
 Tue vast verandas of the Ocean House 
 at Newport were almost deserted at ten 
 o’clock that Sunday night, when War- 
 ren Payn returned from a_ prolonged 
 and ineffectual endeavor to find Mr. 
 Joshua Hoffman. The musician went 
 to the office of the hotel for the key 
 of his room, resolved to go to bed and 
 try to sleep. With the key the clerk 
 handed him a telegram, which he tore. 
 open with feverish haste, hoping that 
 it would put him out of his misery at 
 last. 
 
 The telegram was from Miss Marlen- 
 spuyk, and it read as follows: 
 
 ‘Grandma knows nothing. The Daisy 
 
 
 
117 
 
 _—— 
 
 says she heard you snore. Don’t think 
 she heard anything else.” 
 
 Unconscious of his acts, Payn dropped 
 the flimsy paper on the desk of the ho- 
 tel office, and stared the hotel clerk 
 straight in the eye. Then he recovered 
 himself, and picked up the telegram 
 and read it again. It gave him no cer- 
 tain information, and it left him in 
 darkness and in doubt as before. Ap- 
 parently there was absolutely no one 
 who knew whether or not he had asked 
 the Royal Marine to marry him except 
 that young lady herself, and she was 
 evidently resolved to keep her own 
 counsel. 
 
 In disgust at the absurd situation in 
 whieh he still found himself, the young 
 man crushed the telegram in his hand 
 and flung it into the waste-basket. Then 
 he stooped and picked it up, and read 
 it a third time. As he did so a faint 
 
118 
 
 
 
 ray of hope appeared. Miss Marlen- 
 spuyk was not sure that Virgie Chubb 
 had not overheard his proposal. The 
 telegram declared, “Don’t think she 
 
 heard anything else.” But this was only » 
 
 the old maid’s opinion. Perhaps she 
 was in error. Perhaps The Daisy knew 
 more than she was willing to let Miss 
 Marlenspuyk guess. There was a dim 
 and remote chance here, and, feeble as 
 it was, the composer clung to it eagerly. 
 He looked at his watch, and found that 
 it was nearly a quarter after ten; and 
 he knew that it was hopeless for him to 
 attempt to return to the Pier at that 
 hour on a Sunday night. 
 
 So he possessed his soul in patience, 
 and went to his room and to bed, and 
 after a while to sleep. His- slumber 
 was broken and fitful, yet it was solid 
 enough in its fragments to allow a troop 
 of nightmares to ride rough-shod over 
 
119 
 
 
 
 him, one after the other, each swifter 
 of pace than the other, and more terrible 
 of aspect. : 
 
 Towards morning he fell into a deeper 
 sleep, and he had a strange dream. He 
 dreamed that he saw Miss Virgie Chubb 
 growing out of the sands of the sea- 
 shore, an actual daisy, and that Miss 
 Marlenspuyk stood over her, plucking 
 the petals one by one, and saying, “ He 
 did—he didn’t.” Payn knew at once 
 that the old maid was trying to discover 
 whether or not he had proposed to the 
 Royal Marine, and in his dream he 
 thought it a most excellent device, and 
 he wondered why it had not occurred 
 to him before. With a lively desire to 
 learn whether he did or he didn’t, he 
 watched the fatal operation upon La 
 Marguerite ; but, of course, before any 
 final decision was reached he waked out 
 of his sleep, still in uncertainty. 
 
120 
 
 
 
 After breakfast he attempted again 
 to find Mr. Hoffman, and this time he 
 succeeded. When he had made an end 
 of the business which was his excuse for 
 being in Newport, the morning was 
 wellnigh gone. Payn rode back to 
 Narragansett Pier, arriving at his own 
 hotel just as the dinner-bell rang. He 
 had been gone a little less than twenty- 
 four hours, and his trip across the bay 
 had given him a sufficient excuse, for 
 keeping away from the woman he loved. 
 But now he was back at the Pier, and 
 he was bare of excuses, and he did not 
 know what it was best for him to do 
 next. 
 
 Naturally he went again to see Miss 
 Marlenspuyk, entering her hotel by the 
 side door, and peering about the veran- 
 da to make sure that neither Mrs. Car- 
 roll nor her granddaughter was with 
 the old maid. 
 
121 
 
 
 
 When at last he approached Miss 
 Marlenspuyk her first words encouraged . 
 him. 
 
 “You needn’t look so scared,” she 
 said; “the Royal Marine isn’t here. 
 Really I feel sorry for you—but I sup- 
 pose people with the artistic tempera- 
 ment are always more emotional. Some- 
 times I find myself doubting whether 
 the game of life is worth the candle— 
 and I’m sure it isn’t, if you burn the 
 candle at both ends, as you are doing 
 now. You look as white as a ghost 
 with the dyspepsia.” 
 
 “ How is she?” he asked; “‘and where 
 is she ?” | 
 
 “She is very well,” Miss Marlenspuyk 
 answered, “and she has gone with Grand- 
 ma to spend the day with a Southern 
 friend who has a house half-way down 
 to Point Judith—so you can’t see her 
 till to-morrow.” 
 
122 
 
 
 
 “Then I don’t believe I proposed to 
 her,” he returned, promptly. ‘ Because, 
 if I did, she agreed to give me an an- 
 swer to-night, and if she had made that 
 agreement I’m sure she wouldn’t break 
 it by going away for the evening.” 
 
 “JT thought you didn’t want to see 
 her till you had found out absolutely 
 whether you had spoken or not,” Miss 
 Marlenspuyk retorted. | 
 
 “T don’t know what I want,” he an- 
 swered. ‘Of course I want to see her, 
 for ’m not happy out of her sight. 
 And then, again, while I’m in this un- 
 certainty I’m afraid to go near her, for 
 fear some stupid blunder of mine may 
 spoil all my chances. It’s a very em- 
 barrassing situation, isn’t it?” 
 
 “It is indeed,” she responded, sym- 
 pathetically. “I wish I had been able 
 to help you out of it. But Grandma 
 didn’t know anything—that I’m sure 
 
123 
 
 
 
 of—and La Marguerite wouldn’t tell 
 me anything, if she knows it—and [’m 
 sure I don’t know whether she does or 
 not.” 
 
 “T’ll talk to her myself,” the musician 
 declared. “I'll get it ont of her some- 
 how. I think she will be so glad to 
 tease me that if she knows anything 
 she will be quite incapable of keeping 
 it to herself.” 
 
 “Yes,” said Miss Marlenspuyk, re- 
 flectively, “I suppose you could coax 
 an underbred girl like that to talk about 
 anything—even about her own eaves- 
 dropping.” 
 
 ‘And then, even if I don’t learn any- 
 thing from her, ?m going to make an 
 end of this suspense,” he went on. “I 
 can’t stand it any longer. I’ve got to 
 do something. I’ve got to know the 
 truth—I don’t mean about my proposal 
 —I mean about ’Rina. LTve got to 
 
124 
 
 
 
 know whether she loves me or not. 
 I’m so worried now that m getting 
 desperate.” 
 
 “IT can understand that, you poor 
 boy,” she said, commiseratingly. “ Yet 
 they say that eels get used to being 
 skinned, and that the lobsters no longer 
 mind being boiled to death. You have 
 been in hot water so long now that I 
 thought perhaps—” 
 
 She caught his eyes fixed on Bie. re- 
 proachfully, and so she broke off. 
 
 “Tf she refuses me now,” he declared, 
 “after all this, I don’t know what I 
 shall do!” 
 
 “T can tell you what to do this after- 
 noon,” the old maid responded. ‘Go 
 and play tennis—play hard—play until 
 it is too dark to see the balls. That’s 
 where you men have the advantage of 
 us poor women. You can take violent 
 exercise and drive away care, while all 
 
125 
 
 
 
 we can do is to sew—and sewing is so 
 insipid. Tve seen the time when I 
 felt like running the needle into my 
 heart.”’ 
 
 It was a relief for him to laugh lightly 
 at her vehemence, as he rose from the 
 chair beside her. 
 
 “Your advice is good,” he returned, 
 “Cas it always is; and I’ll take it, and take 
 the exercise. I wish I could get little 
 Mat Hitchcock to play with me. Id 
 make it uncomfortable for him to-day ; 
 and he fancies himself at tennis too!” 
 
 She smiled in her turn. ‘ There,” 
 she said, “run along now and _ play. 
 And if you get any information out of 
 La Marguerite, let me know at once, 
 won't you?” : 
 
 “Of course I will,’ he responded, 
 taking his leave. 
 
 She watched him as he walked away 
 with the springing step of youth. She 
 
126 
 
 
 
 smoothed her white hair, and sighed 
 gently; then she adjusted her glasses, 
 and took up her sewing again. 
 
 As it happened, the first man whom 
 Warren Payn met as he came out on 
 the tennis-grounds of the Casino was 
 little Mat Hitchcock, who promptly ac- 
 cepted his challenge. They were both 
 good average players, neither of them 
 of tournament rank, but that afternoon 
 they played the best tennis of their 
 lives. The first set was the hardest 
 fought, and Payn won it finally, 10-8, 
 and he won all the others—7—5, 6-4, 
 6-8, 6-8, 6-0. This love-set was too 
 much for little Mat; he lost his temper, 
 and threw his racket on the court indig- 
 _nantly, and said that he had never seen a 
 such luck in his life, and that it was 
 simply disgusting. So the musician 
 went to his hotel tired, of course, but 
 in a far happier frame of mind. He 
 
 
 
M 
 
 127 
 
 
 
 took a bath, and had a sharp appetite 
 for his supper. 
 
 After the usual evening repast in Au- 
 gust at the Pier—bluefish and black- 
 berries—he lighted a cigarette, and 
 strolled leisurely back to the Casino. 
 He wished to be there early, because 
 the leader of the little orchestra had 
 asked his permission to include in the 
 programme of that evening a selection 
 from Dontezwma, Warren Payn’s only 
 comic opera, which had been sung dur- 
 ing a brief season at one of the New 
 York theatres three or four years before. 
 
 At the very moment when the com- 
 poser was lighting a second cigarette, 
 Miss Marlenspuyk, in the parlor of her 
 
 __ hotel, was surprised by a visit from the 
 
 Royal Marine. 
 
 “But I thought you were not going 
 to be back till late to-night !” she cried, 
 in astonishment. 
 
128 
 
 
 
 “Tt looked a little like it was going 
 to rain after supper,” the young lady an- 
 swered, “and Grandma reckoned she’d 
 rather be back here. But now we are 
 here, Grandma allows it won’t rain, and 
 she wants to know if you’ll go over to 
 the Casino with us this evening.” 
 
 Miss Marlenspuyk hesitated for a mo- 
 ment, wishing that she could devise some 
 indirect means of ascertaining just how 
 the composer stood in the Royal Ma- 
 rine’s opinion. 
 
 “Do come,” the girl went on, laying 
 her hand affectionately on the old maid’s 
 
 arm. ‘Id love to have you, and Grand- © 
 
 ma is always chirped up after she’s been 
 talking to you about your old friends in 
 the So’th.” 
 
 “T shall be delighted to come, my 
 dear,” Miss Marlenspuyk responded, 
 rising. ‘Jl send for my shawl.” 
 
 While they were waiting for this the 
 
 ag 
 
129 
 
 
 
 young woman and the old walked up 
 and down the long veranda on one side 
 of the hotel. And suddenly Miss Mar- 
 lenspuyk had an inspiration. 
 
 “Excuse my asking such a question, 
 Rina, my dear,” she began, linking her 
 arm in the girl’s, “but have you and 
 Mr. Payn quarrelled ?” 
 
 “ Quaw’led !” echoed ’Rina. ‘“ The 
 idea! Why, I haven’t seen him for two 
 days.” 
 
 “ Ah!’ Miss Marlenspuyk responded. 
 “Not since the hop at the Casino on 
 Saturday night ?” 
 
 “Not since the hop,” the young ane 
 repeated. Then she checked herself. 
 and smiled. “ That is to say,” she went 
 on, “I haven’t spoken.to him since the 
 hop, but [ve seen him since. I saw 
 him in church yesterday, of cou’se, and 
 I saw him Saturday night after the hop, 
 
 out on the bridge, where we all went 
 9 
 
130 
 
 
 
 for a breath of fresh air after that sup- 
 per.” 
 
 Miss Marlenspuyk had become so in- 
 terested in the composer’s extraordinary 
 dilemma that it was with an almost per- 
 ceptible shade of anxiety that she asked, 
 “ Didn’t he speak to you then ?” 
 
 The girl laughed out, and hers was a 
 silvery, happy laugh. 
 
 “Why, Miss Ma’lenspuyk,” she cried, 
 “how could he? He was fast asleep— 
 and, do you know, I thought I almost 
 heard him snaw!” 
 
 Miss Marlenspuyk laughed also. She 
 had the answer to the enigma now. 
 There was only one person in the world 
 who knew whether Warren Payn was 
 asleep or awake when he thought he 
 had asked ’Rina Carroll to marry him, 
 and that one person had declared that 
 he was asleep when she had seen him 
 last. ; 
 
131 
 
 
 
 “But what made you think we had 
 quaw’led, Miss Ma’lenspnyk ?”’ the girl 
 began. 
 
 The bell-boy brought her shawl to 
 the old maid, who took it and thanked 
 him graciously. Then turning to the 
 Royal Marine, and ignoring altogether 
 the girl’s question, she said: “Can you 
 excuse me a moment, my dear? I must 
 write a note before I go.” 
 
 “T’ll wait for you out here on the 
 po’ch,” the young lady answered. 
 
 Miss Marlenspuyk bade the bell-boy 
 follow her. She went into the office of 
 the hotel, and taking out one of her 
 visiting-cards, she wrote on it, hastily: 
 “TY have seen the lady. It is all right. 
 You were dreaming.” : 
 
 Sealing this in an envelope, she di- 
 rected it to Mr. Warren Payn, and told 
 the bell-boy to take it at once to the 
 -musician’s hotel. 
 
132 
 
 
 
 As the boy sped down the steps, glad 
 to run an errand for her, the old maid 
 joined the Royal Marine on the veran- 
 da, and they started to get Grandma 
 and to go together to the Casino. 
 
 But of course Miss Marlenspuyk’s 
 reassuring message did not find Warren 
 Payn at his hotel, and, in fact, it did 
 not come into his hands until near mid- 
 night, when he returned to his room 
 after a most exciting and memorable 
 evening. 
 
 When the bell-boy left the envelope 
 at the hotel, the musician had been for 
 ten minutes in the billiard-room of the 
 Casino, perched on a high chair near 
 one of the windows which opened on 
 the broad upper gallery. Thus placed 
 he could hear the music distinctly, and 
 he could watch a billiard mateh between 
 two of the best players at the Pier that 
 summer. 
 
153 
 
 
 
 While one of the players was chalk- 
 ing his cue preparatory to a most difh- 
 cult carom, Payn heard the long laugh 
 of Miss Virgie Chubb. Gazing hastily 
 out of the window, he saw that La 
 Marguerite was promenading with two 
 other girls. He resolved to seize the 
 opportunity. 
 
 To the great surprise of Miss Chubb, 
 whom the composer had hitherto rather 
 avoided than sought, he joined the three 
 girls and insisted upon talking to her, 
 succeeding at last in cutting loose from . 
 her companions and in bearing La 
 Marguerite off for a promenade with 
 him alone. He was in good spirits ; he 
 felt as though the hour was favorable, 
 and as though the end of his perplexity 
 was at hand. So he rattled along, lead- 
 ing Virgie on further and further, and 
 briskly keeping up his end of the con- 
 versation. All the while he was seek- 
 
134 
 
 
 
 ing how he should begin his inquisition 
 into her knowledge of his acts two 
 nights before. 
 
 Before he could plan an attack, 
 chance gave him an opening. 
 
 “Last time I saw you up here on this 
 floor of the Casino you weren’t so talk- 
 ative,” said La Marguerite, with one of 
 her loud laughs. 
 
 “That was the night before last, 
 wasn’t it ?” he returned, eagerly. 
 
 She nodded, still langhing. 
 
 “ Well,’ he pursued, “if I wasn’t 
 talking, what was I doing?” 
 
 “You were snoring!” she cried. 
 “That’s what you were doing. You 
 were asleep in the moonlight, out there 
 over the bridge. Come along now, and 
 I'll show you the place.” She took his 
 arm, and he suffered himself to be led. 
 
 But when they came to the top of the 
 stairs they found themselves face to face 
 
135 
 
 
 
 with another couple, Mr. Cable J. Dex- 
 ter and Miss Hectorina Carroll. Fol- 
 lowing behind them half-way down the 
 stairs were Mrs. Carroll and Miss Mar- 
 lenspuyk. 
 
 Payn stepped back in astonishment. 
 Over the Royal Marine’s shoulder he 
 could see Miss Marlenspuyk nodding 
 and smiling and making strange signs. 
 He felt sure that she was trying to con- 
 vey to him some important information, 
 although he could not make out what it 
 was. He watched her lips closely as 
 they moved in silent speech, but his 
 eyes did not help him to her meaning 
 any better than his ears. 
 
 And while he was thus engaged the 
 Royal Marine stood before him, won- 
 dering at the extraordinary contortions 
 of his visage, as he unconsciously imi- 
 tated the movement of Miss Marlen- 
 spuyk’s mouth. She wore the same* 
 
136 
 
 
 
 yachting costume in which he had first 
 seen her, with the V. R. and the crown 
 on her sleeve; but as he did not see her 
 at all he did not remark her costume. 
 She stood alone, for when the two 
 couples had come together Virgie 
 Chubb had abandoned Payn promptly, 
 and had immediately taken possession 
 of Dexter. The Chicago grain-operator 
 looked at the musician with an amused 
 smile ; then he winked; then he offered — 
 his arm to La Marguerite, and they 
 walked off together, leaving Payn stand- 
 ing helpless by the side of the woman 
 whom he loved, and to whom he longed 
 to speak. 
 
 On the landing below Mra Carroll | 
 and Miss Marlenspnyk had been de- 
 -tained by three old ladies who were go- 
 ing down-stairs, and who broke at once 
 into a most animated conversation, from 
 which the old maid tried vainly to de- 
 
137 
 
 
 
 tach herself. At last she made a final 
 and despairing gesture to the musician, 
 and began to answer the questions 
 which two of the old ladies poured out 
 upon her. 
 
 Then Warren Payn saw that he 
 should have to rely wholly on himself. 
 “Shall we take a little walk too?” he 
 asked. 
 
 “JT began to think you were never 
 going to speak to me again,” she said, 
 as they moved away towards the bridge 
 side by side, and keeping step to the 
 music of a march which was floating 
 out from the orchestra on the lower 
 veranda—the first notes of the selection 
 from his opera of AZontezuma. 
 
 “T—[—lJI was so surprised, you 
 know,” he stammered — “so surprised 
 to see you here. I thought you were 
 not going to be back this evening.” 
 
 “Oh, I meant to be back all the 
 
138 
 
 
 
 time, you know,” she returned, quickly 
 —‘“as soon as I heard that they were 
 going to play the tunes from your 
 opera.” Then, as though afraid that 
 she might have said more than she had 
 intended, she added, with even greater 
 rapidity, ‘‘ Besides, Grandma wanted 
 to come back herself; she thought it 
 looked like it was going to rain.” 
 
 “Tt was very good of you to want to 
 listen to my music,” he responded, ex- 
 panding joyously, as he always did in 
 her presence. “But who told you 
 about it? I meant to take you by sur- 
 prise.” 
 
 “Oh,” she laughed, merrily, “a little 
 bird told me—a little bird that is ve’y 
 fond of music.” 
 
 By this time they had come out on 
 the broad bridge, and the waters of the 
 bay lay spread out before them bathed 
 
 in the molten moonlight. 
 
139 
 
 
 
 “YT don’t think Grandma is a ve’y 
 good judge of the weather—do you?” 
 she went on, “if she was afraid of a 
 sto’m to-night.” 
 
 “If your being here is the result of 
 her miscalculation,’ he said, “I will 
 recommend her for Old Probabilities’ 
 place whenever she wants it.” 
 
 The splendid upper promenade was 
 almost deserted, and when they came 
 to the balcony at the end there was no- 
 body at all within sound of their voices. 
 The young man knew that the time had 
 come, and at the moment of need he 
 had a sudden inspiration. 
 
 “Tt would be nice,” she declared, “ to 
 have Grandma for the Clerk of the 
 Weather if she could give us nights as 
 lovely as this whenever she pleased.” 
 
 The orchestra on the ground-floor of 
 the Casino was still playing the arrange- 
 ment from Montezuma, and the players 
 
140 
 
 
 
 now began the serenade from that opera 
 —the tenor love-song which had almost 
 carried the piece into popularity, and 
 which still survived the oblivion of the 
 rest of the score. 
 
 So it was to the accompaniment of 
 his own music that the composer spoke 
 again. 
 
 “Miss ’Rina,” he said, and the tone 
 in which he spoke betrayed his purpose 
 to the girl who was listening, “did you 
 ever have the feeling that something 
 you think you are seeing or saying or 
 doing for the first time has happened 
 to you before ?” 
 
 “Often and often,” she answered, 
 with an effort to seem unconcerned. 
 ‘And [Ive heard people say it’s because 
 our brain had two halves — just like it 
 was a silver dollar.” 
 
 “JT have a feeling now,’ he went 
 on, gravely, “as though I had said al- 
 
141 
 
 
 
 ready what I am going to say to you 
 now.” 
 
 She knew then that the proposal was 
 inevitable, and although he had hesitated 
 for a moment, she said nothing. 
 
 “T feel as though I had already told 
 you that I love you.” Then he paused 
 again, and the clear sweet notes of his 
 song rang out on the silvery air from 
 the orchestra beneath them. “Itseems 
 as though I had always loved you, and 
 that I must have told you of it many 
 times.” Still she kept silent. “’ Rina,” 
 he continued, steadily, “ will you be my 
 wife ?” 
 
 “T don’t know what to say,” the girl 
 answered at last. “I didn’t think you 
 were going to talk this way — at least, 
 not yet awhile.” 
 
 But you are going away so soon,” 
 he urged, “and I must have your an- 
 swer now.” 
 
142 
 
 
 
 “YT can’t make up my mind all at 
 once,” she said; ‘‘ you must give me 
 time.” 
 
 Then he wondered whether this too 
 were also a dream. 
 
 “TI can’t wait!’ he replied. “Ive 
 been waiting all summer, for my 
 mind was made up as soon as I saw 
 you. 9) 
 
 “Tet me have a week. On, you 
 must!” she cried. ‘Give me two or 
 three days, anyhow.” 
 
 And again he doubted whether he 
 were awake or asleep. 
 
 “T don’t see why you can’t decide 
 now,” he declared. “What do you 
 need two days for? You don’t hate 
 me now, do you ?” 
 
 “ Oh no,” she answered, frankly. “I 
 couldn’t do that.” 
 
 “Then you do love me a little, don’t 
 you?” he urged. 
 
143 
 
 
 
 She did not reply. But when he 
 promptly put his arm about her she 
 yielded, and let him kiss her, just as the 
 music came to an end. 
 
 Half an hour later he took his prom- 
 ised bride back to her grandmother. 
 She found Miss Marlenspuyk sitting 
 with Mrs. Carroll in a sheltered nook 
 of the lower veranda. 
 
 By the faces of the young couple the 
 old maid saw what had happened, and, 
 greatly to the surprise of Grandma, she 
 drew the girl to her and kissed her on 
 the forehead. 
 
 “ And you thought we had quaw’led,” 
 said the Royal Marine, while her grand- 
 mother wondered at what was going on 
 under her eyes but beyond her compre- 
 hension. 
 
 And while the granddaughter was 
 explaining, Miss Marlenspuyk was con- 
 gratulating Warren Payn. 
 
144 
 
 
 
 “T see,” she said, “it was Lomeo and 
 Juliet, after all, and not a /idswmmer- 
 Nights Dream.” 
 
 THE END 
 

 

 

 

 

 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 
 
 
 
 
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