dged teasingly.

"My dear boy, how absurd of you!" returned the sharp-eyed old lady with
a twinkle of merriment. "In the first place, all the motor-boats in
the world couldn't keep a young man like you chained up indefinitely in
a sleepy little Cape Cod village. Besides, Cynthia told me."

"Cynthia? She doesn't know anything about it."

"That is precisely how I knew," piped Madam Lee triumphantly.

"What did she tell you?"

"She did not tell me anything," was the reply. "She simply came back
from Wilton in a wretched humor and when I inquired of her whether she
had her buckle back again, she answered with such spirit that there was
no mistaking its cause. Of course she had the wit to know you were not
wearing a belt of that pattern; nor your aunt nor Mr. Spence, either."

"The belt and buckle belong to a girl--"

"A girl! You surprise me," she murmured derisively.

Robert Morton waited a moment, then, without heeding her mischievous
comment, added gravely:

"A friend of Mr. Spence's."

"I see."

The old lady smoothed the satin folds of her gown thoughtfully before
she spoke, then continued with extreme gentleness:

"Tell me all about her."

"I couldn't do that," declared Robert Morton. "There aren't words
enough to give you any idea how lovely she is or how good."

Nevertheless, because he had so eager and sympathetic a listener, he at
length began shyly to unfold the story of Delight Hathaway's strange
life. He told it reverently and with a lover's tenderness, touching on
the girl's tragic advent into the hamlet of Wilton, on her beauty, and
on her poverty.

"What a romance!" exclaimed Madam Lee meditatively, when the tale was
done. "And they know nothing of the child's previous history?"

"Next to nothing. The girl's mother died when she was born and the
little tot lived all her life aboard ship with her father."

"Had neither the father nor mother any relatives?"

"Apparently not. The mate of the ship said he had never heard the
Captain mention any."

"Poor little waif! And these people who took her in have been kind to
her? She is fond of them?"

"She adores them!"

The old lady stirred her tea absently.

"But, Bob dear, has the girl any education?" she inquired presently.

"That is the miracle of it!" ejaculated he. "When she was small, one
of the summer residents, a Mrs. Farwell, who had a tutor for her son,
suggested the two children have their lessons together. As a
c