ning a
bolt--which did not need tightening; or wake up in the night to tell
Laura of some wonderful new idea he had conceived as to the equipment
or decoration of the yacht. He had blustered about the extravagance of
a "crew," but the sums of money that went to the brightening,
refitting, overhauling, repainting, and reballasting of the boat--all
absolutely uncalled-for--made even Laura gasp, and would have
maintained a dozen sailors an entire year.

This same inconsistency prevailed also in other directions. In the
matter of business Jadwin's economy was unimpeachable. He would cavil
on a half-dollar's overcharge; he would put himself to downright
inconvenience to save the useless expenditure of a dime--and boast of
it. But no extravagance was ever too great, no time ever too valuable,
when bass were to be caught.

For Jadwin was a fisherman unregenerate. Laura, though an early riser
when in the city, was apt to sleep late in the country, and never
omitted a two-hours' nap in the heat of the afternoon. Her husband
improved these occasions when he was deprived of her society, to
indulge in his pastime. Never a morning so forbidding that his lines
were not in the water by five o'clock; never a sun so scorching that he
was not coaxing a "strike" in the stumps and reeds in the shade under
the shores.

It was the one pleasure he could not share with his wife. Laura was
unable to bear the monotony of the slow-moving boat, the hours spent
without results, the enforced idleness, the cramped positions. Only
occasionally could Jadwin prevail upon her to accompany him. And then
what preparations! Queen Elizabeth approaching her barge was attended
with no less solicitude. MacKenny (who sometimes acted as guide and
oarsman) and her husband exhausted their ingenuity to make her
comfortable. They held anxious debates: "Do you think she'll like
that?" "Wouldn't this make it easier for her?" "Is that the way she
liked it last time?" Jadwin himself arranged the cushions, spread the
carpet over the bottom of the boat, handed her in, found her old gloves
for her, baited her hook, disentangled her line, saw to it that the
mineral water in the ice-box was sufficiently cold, and performed an
endless series of little attentions looking to her comfort and
enjoyment. It was all to no purpose, and at length Laura declared:

"Curtis, dear, it is no use. You just sacrifice every bit of your
pleasure to make me comfortable--to make me enjoy it