have a
talk about your work. I'm sure you have talent of some sort, if we can
just direct it properly."

"I'll never believe in myself again."

He laughed and patted her hand.

"Europe is out of the question. How about Bermuda? Ever been there?"

"No"--indifferently.

"Just the place. Lots doing. Soldiers recuperating, people to watch,
people to play with. Fine place for you. I'll suggest it to your
parents."

He rose and took her two small hands.

"You promise me to get well, and to come back your old vivid self?"

"I'll try. You _are_ a comfort. You helped that other time, too, when
the guillotine nearly broke Tommy Page's neck."

He threw back his head and laughed so heartily at the memory, that she
laughed too.

"I've always been rather ridiculous, haven't I?" she asked him.

"My child, that is an elderly remark," he said, and he left her--on the
whole, cheered.

He promptly made his suggestion to the Bryces. It was discussed pro and
con and then finally it was decided to ship the girl off, in Miss
Watts's care, for it was evident that she was making herself ill with
the humiliation of her failure.

* * * * *

So, one day in November Wally saw them off.

"You look like a Brownie," he said, as he kissed Isabelle good-bye. "For
goodness' sake, get some flesh on your bones."

"Don't worry, old thing," she answered. "I'll come back fat, and
chastened in spirit."

He grinned, and ran for the gangway, and stood waving and smiling as the
steamer slipped from the pier.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

The two travellers settled themselves and took stock of the passengers
in the casual way of those who go down to the sea in ships. Miss Watts
was prepared to have Isabelle throw herself into the activities of the
brief voyage, in order that she might forget her troubles. She did just
the opposite. She lay in her chair, reading or contemplating the sea;
she marched the deck in absent-minded solitude. Miss Watts was the only
person she spoke to, or permitted to speak to her.

But her odd face, her unusual clothes, and her great _hauteur_ marked
her at once in the eyes of the idlers who sat on deck and gossiped. She
was soon identified as the heroine of the Cartel opening. Speculation
and much interest followed her.

The second day out the chair to the right of Isabelle was occupied for
the first time. A cursory glance was enough to assu