arris need not have directed the attention of the others to
their absorption in each other. The young lieutenant looked rather
sulky as he bade good-bye to his hostesses, with his eyes on Phil, and
helped Miss Harris and Miss Paine into the motor boat.

Alfred Thornton and Tom Curtis left the "Merry Maid" soon after
Lieutenant Lawton's launch steamed away, and when the five young women
were alone they looked at one another in silence. Each one of them was
possessed of the same thought. It was Phyllis who voiced it.

"I quite agree with you, Madge," she said, a note of anger in her
voice. "I think that Miss Harris is detestable. One thing is certain,
we must outrow those two girls in the race. I couldn't endure seeing
them win."

"Nor I, Phil," returned Madge. "We'll win that race just to spite that
hateful Miss Harris. I despise her snobbishness."

"That is a very ignoble spirit in which to enter it," reproved Miss
Jenny Ann.

"Remember, we are to race with a very ignoble person," retorted Madge.

CHAPTER V

THE MYSTERIOUS BOX

After the tea-party a variety of things came up to engage the attention
of the "Merry Maid's" crew. For the first time since they had banded
themselves together their interests lay apart. Phyllis Alden was so
deeply impressed with the fact that Lieutenant James Lawton had chosen
her as a confidante and insisted on telling her all his aims and
aspirations, that she had thought of little else except him. Lillian
Seldon was experiencing her first taste of society and it had gone to
her head. The young officers at Fortress Monroe and the midshipmen vied
with one another in paying her devoted attention, and she reveled in
the knowledge that she was pretty and a favorite. Madge's sole idea in
life seemed to consist in annoying Flora Harris, and with this intent
she deliberately encouraged the attentions of Alfred Thornton, thus
arousing the lasting resentment of that young woman, who looked upon
young Thornton as her own particular cavalier. Secretly Madge despised
him, nevertheless she concealed her dislike under a gay, gracious
manner that she used continually to draw him away from the girl whom
she had resolved to annoy and tease on every occasion.

Only Eleanor and Miss Jenny Ann remained unchanged. Both women loved
the quiet of the "Merry Maid" far better than they did Society, and
while Madge, Phil and Lillian flitted here and there like gay young
butterflies, the chaperon and