s of city life. Tunis
could not wholly understand why any sane person should assume this
attitude; in fact, he suspected a good deal of it was put on. How
could a girl, even one as inconsequential and flighty as Ida May
evidently was, hold in contempt the offer he had brought her from
Cap'n Ira and his wife?

But he had done all that could be expected of him. All, indeed, that
he thought wise. Disappointed as the old couple would be by Ida
May's refusal, Tunis felt that to urge her to reconsider the matter
would not be in the best interests of her elderly relatives. They
needed a young companion there on Wreckers' Head, needed one very
sorely, but not such a person as Ida May Bostwick.

"Then, that will be your final answer, Miss Bostwick?" he said
slowly, as Ida May played with her ice.

"Say! I wouldn't go down to that hole for a million," scoffed the
girl. "I guess you wouldn't stand it yourself, only you're off on
your ship most of the time."

"I like the Cape," he said briefly.

"Never lived in the city, did you?"

"I never did."

"Then you don't know any better," she told him confidently. "And you
don't really look like such a dead one, at that."

"Thank you."

She smiled saucily into his rather grim face. Then she opened her
bag and deliberately powdered her nose before rising from the table.

"Thanks for a pleasant hour," she drawled. "You tell Auntie and
Uncle Josh to get a girl from the poor farm or somewhere to do their
chores and tuck 'em in nights. _Me_, I don't mean to live out of
sight of movie signs and electric lights. I'd like to see myself!"

She was both rude and common. Tunis was glad to get out of the
dining room. Ida May attracted altogether too much attention. And
she had quite openly eyed his well-lined wallet when he paid the
waiter. To a girl like Ida May, all was fish that swam into her net.
Crude as she considered him, Tunis Latham was a man with some money.
And he evidently knew how to spend it.

"When you're in town I'd be glad to see you any time, Mr. Latham. Or
do I say captain?"

She smiled up at the big, broad-shouldered fellow bravely as she
trotted along in the skirt that made her hobble like a cripple. The
captain of the _Seamew_ did not respond very cordially, and quite
overlooked her personal question.

"I don't expect to spend much time in Boston," he said. "Thank you.
Then I shall report to Aunt Prue and Cap'n Ira that you will not
consider their offer at all