py or even contented when outside the
radius of a waving fan or away from the flutter of a silken skirt.

It was in one of these resorts of the idle, a couple of years before,
while Lucy's husband and little Ellen were home in Geneva, that Max had
met her, and where he had renewed the acquaintance of their
childhood--an acquaintance which soon ripened into the closest
friendship.

Hence his London drag and appointments; hence the yacht and a
four-in-hand--then a great novelty--all of which he had promised her
should she decide to join him at home. Hence, too, his luxuriously
fitted-up bachelor quarters in Philadelphia, and his own comfortable
apartments in his late father's house, where his sister Sue lived; and
hence, too, his cosey rooms in the best corner of the Beach Haven
hotel, with a view overlooking Barnegat Light and the sea.

None of these things indicated in the smallest degree that this noble
gentleman contemplated finally settling down in a mansion commensurate
with his large means, where he and the pretty widow could enjoy their
married life together; nothing was further from his mind--nothing could
be--he loved his freedom too much. What he wanted, and what he intended
to have, was her undivided companionship--at least for the summer; a
companionship without any of the uncomfortable complications which
would have arisen had he selected an unmarried woman or the wife of
some friend to share his leisure and wealth.

The woman he picked out for the coming season suited him exactly. She
was blonde, with eyes, mouth, teeth, and figure to his liking (he had
become critical in forty odd years--twenty passed as an expert);
dressed in perfect taste, and wore her clothes to perfection; had a
Continental training that made her mistress of every situation,
receiving with equal ease and graciousness anybody, from a postman to a
prince, sending them away charmed and delighted; possessed money enough
of her own not to be too much of a drag upon him; and--best of all (and
this was most important to the heir of Walnut Hill)--had the best blood
of the State circling in her veins. Whether this intimacy might drift
into something closer, compelling him to take a reef in his sails,
never troubled him. It was not the first time that he had steered his
craft between the Scylla of matrimony and the Charybdis of scandal, and
he had not the slightest doubt of his being able to do it again.

As for Lucy, she had many plans in