and laughed. She looked like a Kewpie in her abbreviated
bathing suit, with water wings fastened to her back. She walked rapidly
into the sea, and, perforce, he followed. Miss Wilder shouted orders in
vain from the shore. The tide was running in, and nearly high, so she was
over her depth in a second, but she paddled out toward the distant raft,
her head well out of the water, thanks to her wings. Much amused, Wally
swam beside her into deep water.

"It was a great surprise to me, the day I found I could swim," she said.

"It must have been," he laughed.

"It was a pleasant day," she added.

"It is deep here," he said, to test her.

"I know it. Don't you put your hands on me, Wally. I don't want to be
touched," she admonished him.

"Aren't you afraid?"

"No."

In due time they reached the raft. The youngster was winded, but
undaunted. Bryce watched her with real admiration. Here was a dare-devil
courage he vastly respected. He was timid and cautious himself.

"Throw me off the raft, Wally; I like to splash," she ordered.

"You're crazy," he said.

"No. Mr. Page threw me off the club raft, when I asked him to."

"Better not let me catch him at it. You sit still and get your breath
and then we'll start back."

He dived off the raft and instantly she followed him. He caught her by
the arm, strangling and coughing.

"You little devil," he said; "you'll drown."

"No, I won't. Let go, Wally; I won't be helped."

He headed her for shore, by pretending to race her, and once on land he
urged Miss Wilder to watch her every minute, lest she swim for the raft
alone.

But this adventure had fixed Isabelle on her father's mind. He thought
about her a good deal, and laughed at the thought. She certainly was a
sport, and she was nobody's fool. He wondered if other children were
like her, and began to watch them. He asked their fathers about them,
but the fathers never knew. They always said: "I don't see much of the
kids; too busy," or: "That's Mabel's job (or Kate's or Mary's)."

He could not seem to remember seeing much of his father when he was a
boy, save on state occasions when his parent was called upon to
administer extra stiff punishment. He wondered if the other mothers knew
more about their youngsters than Max did about hers? But when he asked
them at the club, or on the golf course, they looked surprised and said:
"I don't know anything about them, Wally; the governess looks after
them."

It evidentl