houghts upon her mind.
Charley's attentions to me had met all that politeness required, and
as we went aft again, his sister caused certain movements and
rearrangements to happen with chairs and people. I didn't know this at
once, but I knew it when I found myself somehow sitting with her and
John, and saw Hortense with Charley. Hortense looked over at Kitty with
a something that had in it both raised eyebrows and a shrug, though
these visible signs did not occur; and, indeed, so far as anything
visible went (except the look) you might have supposed that now Hortense
had no thoughts for any man in the world save Charley. And John was
plainly more at ease with Kitty! He began to make himself agreeable, so
that once or twice she gave him a glance of surprise. There was nothing
to mark him out from the others, except his paleness in the midst of
their redness. Yachting clothes bring out wonderfully how much you are
in the habit of eating and drinking; and an innocent stranger might have
supposed that the Replacers were richly sunburned from exposure to the
blazing waters of Cuba and the tropics. Kitty deemed it suitable to
extol Kings Port to John. "Quaint" was the word that did most of this
work for her; she found everything that, even the negroes; and when
she had come to the end of it, she supposed the inside must be just as
"quaint" as the outside.

"It is," said John Mayrant. He was enjoying Kitty. Then he became
impertinent. "You ought to see it."

"Do you stay inside much?" said Kitty.

"We all do," said John. "Some of us never come out."

"But you came out?" Kitty suggested.

"Oh, I've been out," John returned. He was getting older. I doubt if the
past few years of his life had matured him as much as had the past few
days. Then he looked at Kitty in the eyes. "And I'd always come out--if
Romance rang the bell."

"Hm!" said Kitty. "Then you know that ring?"

"We begin to hear it early in Kings Port," remarked John. "About the age
of fourteen."

Kitty looked at him with an interest that now plainly revealed
curiosity also. It occurred to me that he could not have found any
great embarrassment in getting on at Newport. "What if I rang the bell
myself?" explained Kitty.

"Come in the evening," returned John. "We won't go home till morning."

Kitty kissed her hand to him, and, during the pleased giggle that
she gave, I saw her first taking in John and then Hortense. Kitty
was thinking, thinking, of John's "