play his part in the world and play it well. I've come to
think a good deal of that boy. I wish I were as sure of the girl."

"Cecily? Don't you worry about her." The father chuckled pridefully.
"She's got stuff in her. I'd trust her to start the world with as I did
with her mother."

What of Little Miss Grouch, while all these momentous happenings were in
progress? Events had piled up on her sturdy little nerves rather too
fast even for their youthful strength. The emotional turmoil of which
the Tyro was the cause, the tension of meeting her father again, and, on
top of these, the startling occurrences on the deck of the tender had
stretched her endurance a little beyond its limit, and it was with a
sense of grateful refuge that she had betaken herself to the hospitality
of Lady Guenn's cabin. What transpired between the two women is no
matter for the pen of a masculine chronicler. Suffice it to note that
Lord Guenn, surcharged with instructions to be casual, set out to find
the Tyro, and, having found him, blurted out:--

"I say, Smith, Cecily's in our cabin. If I were you I'd lose no time
getting there. It's the only one on the port side aft."

No time was lost by the Tyro. He found Cecily alone. At sight of her
face, his heart gave one painful thump, and shriveled up.

"You've been crying," he said.

"I haven't!" she denied. "And if I have, there's enough to make me cry."

"What was it?" was his sufficiently lame rejoinder.

"I imagine if you'd seen your father beaten and kicked as I saw mine--"

"I didn't know who it was."

"But if you had been shaken and cursed, yourself--"

"Cursed? Who cursed you?"

"You did."

"I!"

"You said, 'D-d-damn you, let me go!'"

"I did _not_. I simply told you to let me go."

"Well you might as well have said 'Damn you!' You meant it," whimpered
Little Miss Grouch.

"She might have been drowned," said the Tyro.

"So might you. I saved your life by not letting you go in after her. And
you haven't a spark of gratitude."

"Well," began the Tyro, astounded at this sudden turn of strategy, "I
_am_--"

"Go on and curse some more," she advised. "I suppose you'd have kicked
_me_ if I hadn't let go."

He stared at her, speechless.

"Now you've made me cu-cu-cry again. And my nose is all red. _Isn't_ my
nose all red? Say 'Yes.'"

"Yes," said the bewildered young man, obediently.

"And I'm hoarse as a crow. _Am_ I? Say it!"

"Y-y-yes," he stammered.

"And I'm h