were staid little homes, or
fresh-painted smart cottages. Sometimes a bold rock-bank formed the
shore for miles and miles, and the hills would vanish for a space.
Here and there were headlands formed by mighty boulders, against which
the waves endlessly dashed and as endlessly foamed back into the sea.

Such a headland loomed up on their starboard one evening when the sun
was low; and as the plumes of spray from the incoming waves rose high
in the air a rainbow formed itself in the fleeting mist. It was a
fairy picture, repeating itself two or three times, no more.

"That's my symbol of hope," said Aleck quite impersonally, to anybody
who chose to hear.

Mr. Chamberlain turned to Aleck with his ready courtesy. "Not the only
one you have received, I hope, on this charming voyage."

Madame Reynier was ready with her pleasant word. "Aren't we all
symbols for you--if not of hope, then of your success as a host? We've
lost our aches and our pains, our nerves and our troubles; all gone
overboard from the _Sea Gull_."

"You're all tremendously good to me, I know that," said Aleck, his slow
words coming with great sincerity.

Melanie kept silence, but she remembered the rainbow.

The headland was the landward end of a small island, one part of which
was thickly wooded. A large unused house stood in a clearing,
evidently once a rather pretentious summer residence, though now there
were many signs of delapidation. The pier on the beach had been almost
entirely beaten down by storms, and a small, flimsy slip had taken its
place, running far down into the water. A thin line of smoke rose from
the chimney of one of the outbuildings; and while they looked and
listened the raucous cry of a peacock came to them over the still
water. Presently Chamberlain suggested:

"I feel it in my bones that there'll be lobsters over there to be had
for the asking. I heard your man say he wanted lobsters, Van; and I
believe I'll row over there and see. I'm feeling uncommonly fit and
need some exercise."

"All right, I'll go too," said Aleck.

"I'll bet a bouquet that I beat you rowing over--Miss Reynier to
furnish the bouquet!" was Chamberlain's next proposition. "Do you
agree to that, my lady?"

"And pray, where should I get a bouquet?"

"Oh, the next time we get on land. And we won't put up with any old
bouquet of juniper bushes and rocks, either. We want a good,
old-fashioned round bouquet of garden posies, with migno