st be interrupted for a while, but that is
about all there is of it, isn't it? We shall probably be back not later
than October, I should say, and then you can renew your contests with
Julius and your controversies with me."

Her tone and what she said recalled to him their last night on board the
ship, but there was no relenting on this occasion. He realized that for
a moment he had been on the verge of telling the girl that he loved her,
and he realized, too, that she had divined his impulse and prevented the
disclosure; but he registered a vow that he would know before he saw her
again whether he might consistently tell her his love, and win or lose
upon the touch.

Miss Blake made several inaccurate efforts to introduce her needle at
the exact point desired, and when that endeavor was accomplished broke
the silence by saying, "Speaking of 'October,' have you read the novel?
I think it is charming."

"Yes," said John, with his vow in his mind, but not sorry for the
diversion, "and I enjoyed it very much. I thought it was immensely
clever, but I confess that I didn't quite sympathize with the love
affairs of a hero who was past forty, and I must also confess that I
thought the girl was, well--to put it in plain English--a fool."

Mary laughed, with a little quaver in her voice. "Do you know," she
said, "that sometimes it seems to me that I am older than you are?"

"I know you're awfully wise," said John with a laugh, and from that
their talk drifted off into the safer channels of their usual
intercourse until he rose to say good night.

"Of course, we shall see you again before we go," she said as she gave
him her hand.

"Oh," he declared, "I intend regularly to haunt the place."

CHAPTER XI.

When John came down the next morning his father, who was, as a rule, the
most punctual of men, had not appeared. He opened the paper and sat down
to wait. Ten minutes passed, fifteen, twenty. He rang the bell. "Have
you heard my father this morning?" he said to Jeffrey, remembering for
the first time that he himself had not.

"No, sir," said the man. "He most generally coughs a little in the
morning, but I don't think I heard him this morning, sir."

"Go up and see why he doesn't come down," said John, and a moment later
he followed the servant upstairs, to find him standing at the chamber
door with a frightened face.

"He must be very sound asleep, sir," said Jeffrey. "He hasn't answered
to my knockin' or