on and placed it gingerly between her lips.

"Why, it's not so bad," she said. "Here! Open your mouth and shut
your eyes!" Which Dan did, declaring that he had never eaten anything
half so delicious.

"Really!" she exclaimed, with falling inflection. "Then I must say I
feel sorry for you. . . . Now, why have you that little amused twinkle
in your eyes? I used to see it sometimes at the table on the _Tampico_
when Reggie was boasting, and--and sometimes when I was trying to be
very brilliant. Do you know, sometimes I felt like boxing your ears,
you seemed so superior."

"It was not superiority in your case," laughed Dan, "it was
appreciation."

"Thank you," said Virginia; "and now?"

"Oh," smiled Dan, "the thought of fudge on a derelict was and is
responsible for this twinkle."

"I don't care," she frowned. "It is the person that rises superior to
conditions who triumphs in this world. Anyway, you seem to be
disposing of your share, despite your notions of incongruity."

"Have you thought," said Dan, "that it might pay to be very economical
with your chocolate? If we stay here two or three months and all our
food runs out we can live on ever so little chocolate each day."

"Two or three months!" echoed Virginia. "Now, you are tactful, aren't
you? And just as I was sitting here chattering away, with no thought
that we were not on a yacht ready to turn home the minute I wished to!"

Dan smiled.

"If we were on a yacht, how soon would you--wish to?" he said.

The girl met his eyes undauntedly.

"If I answered you in one way I should not be at all polite," she said;
"and if in another, I should not be--be--"

"Honest?" suggested Dan.

"That would depend upon what I said," she answered with a non-committal
shrug. "Now I am going. I've a lot to do in my cabin, and a luncheon
menu to make out. _Au revoir_!" She paused at the entrance to the
cabins, smiled brightly at Dan, and then disappeared.

Long he sat, gazing out over the serene waters, filled with a great
inward thrill. The wonder of all the fast-crowding events of the past
fortnight was asserting itself potently in his mind, and it was
difficult to realize he was not now living some wild, improbable dream.
But, after all, he found the sense of responsibility dominant. To his
care was committed a beautiful life,--a life that must be saved,
cherished, and ultimately restored to its proper environment. Of late,
it seemed, an evil star h