, we have been looking forward to doing
exactly the same thing in the spring."

"I think we had better not talk about that now," she said,
flushing. "I intend to make believe, till we get to England, that
mamma is down below, and that I may be called at any moment. How
long shall we be before we are there?"

"I cannot say, Bertha. I shall have a talk with Hawkins, presently,
as to what course we had better take. It may be best to sail to
Bermuda. If we find a mail steamer about to start from there, we
might go home in it, and get there a fortnight earlier than we
should do in the yacht, perhaps more. However, that we can talk
over. I can see there may be difficulties, but undoubtedly the
sooner you are home the better. You see, we are well in November
now.

"What day is it?" he reflected.

"I have lost all count, Frank."

He consulted a pocketbook.

"Today is the twenty-first of November. I should think that if we
get favourable winds, we might make Bermuda in a week--ten days at
the outside; and if we could catch a steamer a day or two after
getting there, you might be able to spend your Christmas at
Greendale."

"That would be very nice. The difficulty would be, that I might
afterwards meet some of the people who were with us on the
steamer."

"It would not be likely," he said. "Still, we can talk it over. At
any rate, from the Bermudas we can send a letter to your mother,
and set her mind at rest."

The captain and Purvis, consulting the book of sailing directions,
came to the conclusion that the passage via the Bermudas would be
distinctly the best and shortest. The wind was abeam and steady,
and with all sail set the Osprey maintained a speed of nine knots
an hour until Bermuda was in sight. They were still undecided as to
whether they had better go home by the mail, but it was settled for
them by their finding, on entering the port, that the steamer had
touched there the day before and gone on the same evening, and that
it was not probable that any other steamer would be sailing for
England for another ten days.

They stopped only long enough to lay in a store of fresh provisions
and water, of which the supply was now beginning to run very short.
Indeed, had not the wind been so steady, all hands would have been
placed on half rations of water.

Bertha did not land. She was nervously afraid of meeting anyone who
might recognise her afterwards, and six hours after entering the
port the Osprey was