ily appeared. The
meal was more or less the usual midday repast, but to Isabelle and Larry
it might have been ambrosia, or sawdust. They made motions of eating,
between long glances. Wally and Max tried not to notice, but Miss
Watts's face was wreathed in a fatuous smile of satisfaction.

Later, when they went to the living room, she started to slip away, but
Isabelle put her arm through the older woman's and led her along.

"We'll face this out together," she whispered.

"We seem to have had the end of this story, Isabelle; suppose we now
have the first of it," said her mother in an amused tone.

The Captain and Isabelle smiled at each other.

"Will you recite it, or shall I?" he asked.

"Together."

* * * * *

"_Chapter One. The good ship 'Astra.' The hero forces his acquaintance
upon the heroine . . ._" he began.

"Didn't you want to meet him?" inquired Max, curiously.

"Certainly, but I didn't want him to know it. All the women on board
made fools of themselves about him."

"Deceivin' little minx! Is this the way ye brought her up, Mrs. Bryce?"

"I didn't bring her up. She's brought herself up. Go on with the story."

"_The hero curried favour with one Miss Watts in hope of advancing his
suit . . ._"

"Miss Watts was foolish about him, too," announced Isabelle.

"I was," admitted Miss Watts.

"_The heroine promptly acquired one Major O'Dell, of the English army,
one odious youth, named Percy, one nondescript yclept Jack----_"

"And an Irishman named O'Leary," boasted Isabelle.

"_And an Irishman named O'Leary. She led them all a pretty dance, and
when her affairs were so complicated that a lawyer couldn't straighten
them out, whist! she disappears._"

"Engaged to a Frenchman!" supplied Wally. "Catholic tastes, our
Isabelle, a regular internationalist."

Larry looked at Wally as if seeing him for the first time, and laughed
appreciatively.

"The Irishman followed," prompted Isabelle.

"_The Irishman followed. Now he wishes to apologize for the abrupt way
in which he intruded into the peace conference. He makes the proper, if
somewhat belated request, that Mr. and Mrs. Bryce will look upon him
kindly as a son-in-law._"

His gay smile went swiftly from Max to Wally.

"Isabelle, has he proposed yet?" asked Max.

"Yes."

"Did you accept him?"

"Yes."

"I cannot believe that you could ever do anything so sensible."

"Thank you," bowed the Cap