ral too,
Disclosing pearls--and--"

All the rest of it! Yes, no wonder that Jeffrey Benson was transfixed.
Still less wonder that Rosebud stood in much the same condition; for, a
young giant in pilot-cloth, damp and dirty, dishevelled, bespattered
with mud, tied up about the fingers and plastered over the nose, was not
precisely what she had expected to find in Aunt Millet's parlour.

They were soon introduced, however, and on the best of terms; for the
shrinking from Jeff's filthy appearance changed in a moment to
hero-worship in the romantic heart of Rose, when she was told the cause
of the youth's condition, and heard all the details of the rescue from
his own manly lips.

It was love at first sight with both of them; more than that, it was
first love at first sight! We have profound sympathy with young people
thus circumstanced, especially when they are reticent, and don't give
way to sentimental silliness. A good manly and womanly case of this
sort of love, in which the parties concerned take a serious header and
go deep down, without the smallest intention of ever coming up again, is
pleasant to contemplate and agreeable to record.

Of course it must not be supposed that Rose Millet understood what had
happened. She was fully aware, indeed, that something unusual had
occurred within her inexperienced breast, but she quietly set it down to
hero-worship. She had read Carlyle on that subject. She had seen
occasional reference in newspapers and magazines to lifeboat work, and
she had been thrilled by the record of noble deeds done by heroic seamen
and coastguardsmen. At last it was her lot to come athwart one of those
heroes. He quite came up to her conception--nay, more than came up to
it! She regarded Jeff with feelings approaching to awe. The idea of
love in connection with a damp, dirty, wounded, nose-plastered,
hair-ravelled giant, with beard enough to make an average hearth-broom,
never entered her fair head. If suggested to her she would have laughed
it to scorn--had it been possible for one so bright and "funny" to
become scornful.

As for Jeff--he more than suspected what had happened in regard to
himself. His experience of life had been varied and extensive for his
years--at least in a nautical direction--and that is saying a great
deal.

"Done for!" he remarked to himself that evening, as he left the
residence of Miss Millet and sauntered slowly homeward, divesting his
fingers of the w