h was resting on the
rail, and for two seconds she let it stay.

"Yes," he said, "thanks--very--much!"

"I must go now," she said, turning toward him, and for a moment she
looked searchingly in his face. "Good night," she said, giving him her
hand, and John looked after her as she walked down the deck, and he knew
how it was with him.

CHAPTER VI.

John saw Miss Blake the next morning in the saloon among the passengers
in line for the customs official. It was an easy conjecture that Mr.
Carling's nerves were not up to committing himself to a "declaration" of
any sort, and that Miss Blake was undertaking the duty for the party. He
did not see her again until he had had his luggage passed and turned it
over to an expressman. As he was on his way to leave the wharf he came
across the group, and stopped to greet them and ask if he could be of
service, and was told that their houseman had everything in charge, and
that they were just going to their carriage, which was waiting. "And,"
said Miss Blake, "if you are going up town, we can offer you a seat."

"Sha'n't I discommode you?" he asked. "If you are sure I shall not, I
shall be glad to be taken as far as Madison Avenue and Thirty-third
Street, for I suppose that will be your route."

"Quite sure," she replied, seconded by the Carlings, and so it happened
that John went directly home instead of going first to his father's
office. The weather was a chilly drizzle, and he was glad to be spared
the discomfort of going about in it with hand-bag, overcoat, and
umbrella, and felt a certain justification in concluding that, after
two years, a few hours more or less under the circumstances would make
but little difference. And then, too, the prospect of half or
three-quarters of an hour in Miss Blake's company, the Carlings
notwithstanding, was a temptation to be welcomed. But if he had hoped or
expected, as perhaps would have been not unnatural, to discover in that
young woman's air any hint or trace of the feeling she had exhibited,
or, perhaps it should be said, to a degree permitted to show itself,
disappointment was his portion. Her manner was as much in contrast with
that of the last days of their voyage together as the handsome street
dress and hat in which she was attired bore to the dress and headgear of
her steamer costume, and it almost seemed to him as if the contrasts
bore some relation to each other. After the question of the carriage
windows--whether