h ago; or, at any
rate, would not have mistaken a schooner for a yawl, after the
patient explanation I gave you on your last visit as to the
different rigs. That is the Osprey, a hundred yards lower down."

"Oh, yes, I remember now, that when there is a little mast standing
on the stern it is a yawl. These things seem very simple to you,
Major Mallett, but they are very puzzling to women, who know
nothing about them. Now, I venture to say, that if I were to show
you six different materials for frocks, and were to tell you all
their names, you would know nothing about them when I showed them
to you a month afterwards.

"I suppose the gentleman on board is Colonel Severn."

"Yes, he came down by the train before yours. I thought it better
that he should do so, as in the first place, he did not know any of
you, and in the next, as you see, we are pretty closely packed as
it is."

"What is that flag at the masthead?" Lady Greendale asked. "Bertha
said that your flag was going to have an eagle on it."

"That is on my racing flag. Let me impress upon you, ladies, that a
racing flag is a square flag, and that that is not a flag at all,
but a burgee. Every club has its burgee; as you see, that is a
white cross on a blue ground with a crown in the centre, and is the
burgee of the Royal Thames, of which I was elected a member last
month.

"Here we are. Properly, I ought to be on board first, but I am too
wedged in. You and Wilson had better go up first; that will give
more room for the ladies to move."

"You have got new steps," Bertha said. "When I came down with Mrs.
Wilson to christen the boat we had to climb up nasty steep steps
against the side. This is a great deal more comfortable. I was
thinking that mamma would have a difficulty in getting up those
other things, if it were at all rough."

"Yes, I have had them specially made for the present occasion.
Large cruisers always have them, and, at any rate, they are more
comfortable for any-sized boats. But they take up rather more room
to stow away, and they are really not so handy in a sea, for the
boats cannot get so close alongside. Still, no doubt they are more
comfortable for ladies. Now it is your turn."

The cruise of the Osprey was in all respects a success. The party
was well chosen and pleasant. Colonel Severn and Lady Greendale got
on well together. He liked her because she had no objection
whatever to his perpetual enjoyment of his pipe. She liked him