u were saying--"

"As I was saying, everything was going so beautifully until ten days
ago, when Helena's people cabled her to come home. Her mother is
seriously ill and cannot live more than a few months. She went at
once, but I couldn't go with her--not very well, in midsummer--and so
here I am, all alone, high and dry."

She leaned her chin in the cup of her hand and, looking
absent-mindedly at the shimmering rushes, fell into a spell of silence
that took no account of Appleton.

To tell the truth, he didn't mind looking at her unobserved for a
moment or two. He had almost complete control of his senses, and he
didn't believe she could be as pretty as he thought she was. There was
no reason to think that she was better to look at than an out-and-out
beauty. Her nose wasn't Greek. It was just a trifle faulty, but it was
piquant and full of mischief. There was nothing to be said against her
mouth or her eyelashes, which were beyond criticism, and he
particularly liked the way her dark-brown hair grew round her temples
and her ears--but the quality in her face that appealed most to
Appleton was a soft and touching youthfulness.

Suddenly she remembered herself, and began again:

"Miss Markham and I had twice gone to large seaside hotels with great
success, but, of course, she had a manager and a reputation. I thought
I would try the same thing alone in some very quiet retreat, and see
if it would do. Oh! wasn't it funny!" (Here she broke into a perfectly
childlike fit of laughter.) "It was such a well-behaved, solemn little
audience, that never gave me an inkling of its liking or its
loathing."

"Oh, yes, it did!" remonstrated Appleton. "They loved your Scotch
songs."

"Silently!" cried Tommy. "I had dozens and dozens of other things
upstairs to sing to them, but I thought I was suiting my programme to
the place and the people. I looked at them during luncheon and made my
selections."

"You are flattering the week-enders."

"I believe you are musical," she ventured, looking up at him as she
played with a tuft of sea-pinks.

"I am passionately fond of singing, so I seldom go to concerts," he
answered, somewhat enigmatically. "Your programme was an enchanting
one to me."

"It was good of its kind, if the audience would have helped me,"--and
Tommy's lip trembled a little; "but perhaps I could have borne that,
if it hadn't been for the--plate."

"Not a pleasant custom, and a new one to me," said Appleton.