hands lay
on the railing. Chester saw their soft shapeliness, and noted also that
there were no rings on them.

"I'm glad I've met you," said Chester honestly.

"And I'm glad, too," she breathed. "Some other time you must tell me so
much. I've so many questions to ask. You'll do that, won't you?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Now I must go to father. He may be uneasy." She held out her hand.
"Good night--what _do_ you think of me? Am I a rude girl?"

"I heard your father call you Lucy. That's your name, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"And I may call you that, may I not? You know these ship-board
acquaintances don't wait on ceremony."

"But I don't know your name, either. Think of it, how we have been
really confidential and we don't even know each other's name."

"I know yours."

"Only half of it. I've two more. How many have you?"

"Only two."

"And they are?"

"Chester Lawrence."

"Well, mine is Lucy May Strong--and now, goodnight."

He took her arm and helped her down the steps, gently, for she seemed
such a frail being, one who needed just such stout arms as Chester's to
lean upon. He risked the danger of meeting the father by helping her
down the second flight of steps to the state-room deck.

"Good night, Lucy."

"Good night--Brother Lawrence."

CHAPTER V.

All Monday forenoon, Chester sat on deck reading a book which he had
obtained from the ship's library. It was a most interesting story, and
yet the world of gray-green water and changing clouds drew his attention
from the printed page. He was beginning to realize what the fascination
for the sea was which took hold of men. It would have been difficult for
him to analyze or explain this feeling, but it was there; and it seemed
to him that he would have been content to live out his life on that
boundless ocean which presented a symbol of eternity continually before
his eyes.

"Good morning."

Chester started, then turned. It was Lucy's father who found a chair and
drew it up to Chester's.

"Is the book interesting?" inquired the minister.

"Not so interesting as this wonderful sea and sky," was the reply.

"You are right," said the other, following the young man's gaze out to
the distance. "Our universe is now but water and air, and we are but
specks floating between the two layers."

"But we know that ocean and air are not all. We know there are plains
and mountains, forests and growing fields; so after all our universe
must include not o