of an element of
suspicion.

"You didn't expect to see me just now, did you?" he asked.

"No," said Merefleet. "I should have taken the trouble to call your name
to mind before I spoke if I had."

Seton nodded. "I saw you at _table d'hote_" he remarked. "I was with my
cousin at the other end of the room. You were gone when we got up."

"Your cousin?" said Merefleet deliberately. "Is that the American lady
who is staying here?"

"Yes. Miss Ward. She is from New York, too. You may have seen her there."

"No," said Merefleet. "I know very little of New York society, or any
society for the matter of that."

Seton turned and looked at him with a smile. "Odd," he said. "For there
can be scarcely a man, woman, or child, here or in America, who does not
know you by name."

"Not so bad as that, I hope," said Merefleet. And Seton laughed.

"You have the reputation for shunning celebrity," he remarked.

"So I understand," said Merefleet. "I hope the reputation will be my
protection."

Young Seton became genial from that point onward. Without being
communicative, he managed to convey the impression that he was quite
prepared to be friendly. And for some reason unexplained Merefleet was
pleased. He went to bed that night with somewhat revised ideas on the
subject of society in general and the society of American girls in
particular.

CHAPTER V

"Is this the gentleman as was to come and see me? Come in, sir. Come in!
My old eyes ain't so sharp as they used to be, but I can see a many
things yet."

And old Quiller, the fisherman, removed his sou'wester from his snowy
head and peered at the visitor from under his hand.

"You don't know me, eh, Quiller?" Merefleet said.

He was surprised to hear a high voice from the interior of the cottage
break in on the old man's hesitating reply.

"He's a sort of walking monkey-puzzle, I guess," said the voice, and a
roguish laugh followed the words.

Merefleet looked over old Quiller's shoulder into the little kitchen. She
was standing by the table with her sleeves up to her elbows, making some
invalid dish. A shaft of sunlight slanting through the tiny window fell
full upon her as she stood. It made him think of the searchlight glory of
the previous night. She shone like a princess in her lowly surroundings.

She nodded to him gaily as she met his eyes.

"Come right in!" she said hospitably. "And I shall tell Grandpa Quiller
who you are."

"Aye, but I know," br