tepped on board the cat-boat "Cornelia" at sharp four on Monday
afternoon. Mrs. Fred Allen, a tall, graceful brunette, seemed as much of
a girl as any of the party which she was nominally to "matronize;" but
"she _was_ married though she didn't look it," as Berry Joy remarked,
and so was qualified to fill the place. There was a fair wind, which
sent the boat smoothly along with little or no motion as they glided
past the long sunken shoal off the end of Goat Island, and opened the
view of Brenton's Cove, with the wreck of the old slaver lying in the
deep shadow under one bank, opposite the ribs of the other stranded
bark; while from beyond in the laughing bay, white-winged boats flitted
to and fro, and seemed to beckon and make tempting signals to the poor
defeated barks who might never sail or enjoy the sea again. Candace
ventured to ask Gertrude in a whisper, "What are those?"

"Oh, only some old wrecks," replied Gertrude, carelessly; and she turned
from Candace to talk to Tom Joy, who sat next to her.

The "Cornelia" was now running on the favoring wind between Fort Adams
and the Conanicut shore. On one hand lay Newport, which looked like a
dream city in the soft shine of the afternoon; on the other was the long
hill line of the island, green with grasses, except where broken now and
then by rocky cliffs, and indented with innumerable little coves and
inlets,--some ending in strips of pebbly beach, others in stony shelves
overhung by sea-weeds. The water was beautiful in color,--here pale
flashing green, there purple in the shadow, with gleams of golden light
and a low reach of shimmering blue toward the horizon. On sped the boat
till they could almost touch the ledges. The rounded outline of the old
fortification on the upper hill towered above their heads. Then suddenly
she curved and wheeled off on the other tack, with the sharp line of
Castle Hill and the Agassiz Point full in view.

Candace gazed with delighted eyes to left and right. Her mind was full
of questions, but there seemed no one of whom she could ask them.
Georgie and Berry were perched on the extreme point of the bow, with a
young man stretched at their feet. Mrs. Fred was on the cabin roof
amidships, with quite a little court of girls and young men about her.
The couples who sat opposite and beside her seemed quite absorbed in
each other. No one had spoken to Candace since the first introductions,
and she was too shy to open a conversation with any