his
dinner and the two glasses of wine which Miss Blake had contrived that
he should swallow had braced him up, and John's suggestion was so warmly
seconded by the ladies that, after some feeble protests and misgivings,
he yielded, and John carried him off.

"I hope it won't upset Julius," said Mrs. Carling doubtfully.

"It won't do anything of the sort," her sister replied. "He will get
through the evening without worrying himself and you into fits, and, if
Mr. Lenox succeeds, you won't see anything of him till ten o'clock or
after, and not then, I hope. Mind, you're to be sound asleep when he
comes in--snore a little if necessary--and let him get to bed without
any talk at all."

"Why do you say 'if Mr. Lenox succeeds'?" asked Mrs. Carling.

"It was his suggestion," Miss Blake answered. "We had been talking about
Julius, and he finally told me he thought he would be the better of an
occasional interval of masculine society, and I quite agreed with him.
You know how much he enjoyed being with George Nollis, and how much like
himself he appeared."

"That is true," said Mrs. Carling.

"And you know that just as soon as he got alone again with us two women
he began backing and filling as badly as ever. I believe Mr. Lenox is
right, and that Julius is just petticoated to death between us."

"Did Mr. Lenox say that?" asked Mrs. Carling incredulously.

"No," said her sister, laughing, "he didn't make use of precisely that
figure, but that was what he thought plainly enough."

"What do you think of Mr. Lenox?" said Mrs. Carling irrelevantly. "Do
you like him? I thought that he looked at you very admiringly once or
twice to-night," she added, with her eyes on her sister's face.

"Well," said Mary, with a petulant toss of the head, "except that I've
had about an hour's talk with him, and that I knew him when we were
children--at least when I was a child--he is a perfect stranger to me,
and I do wish," she added in a tone of annoyance, "that you would give
up that fad of yours, that every man who comes along is going to--to--be
a nuisance."

"He seems very pleasant," said Mrs. Carling, meekly ignoring her
sister's reproach.

"Oh, yes," she replied indifferently, "he's pleasant enough. Let us go
up and have a walk on deck. I want you to be sound asleep when Julius
comes in."

CHAPTER V.

John found his humane experiment pleasanter than he expected. Mr.
Carling, as was to be anticipated, demurred a littl