emperor; yet the tourists flung down guide-books and left their tea to
shout encouragement and wave their handkerchiefs to Ben Kelham and
Sybil Sidmouth, who were also having tea on the slanting deck of their
private steamer, which had run aground on the pestiferous sand-bank.

Mrs. Sidmouth, in the seclusion of the saloon, was summoning all her
strength for a real nerve-storm.

Damaris looked hard for a moment, then became deadly-white, and backed
her way out through the crowd. She flashed a quick glance round in
search of the Thistletons, and saw them leaning dangerously far over
the rail, trying to attract the attention of Sybil Sidmouth, who was
smiling so contentedly as she handed her companion his tea; then she
turned to run to the saloon to hide herself, and ran, instead, right
into Jane Coop's arms.

There was a grim set to the maid's mouth and a steely glitter in her
eyes.

"I was just coming to ask you, dearie, if you'd like a cup of tea. One
gets fair sick of the ruins and things one sees on this river. The
young ladies can come and find you at tea if they want to."

How often had the motherly woman gone out to bring in the lamb from the
storm, or hunted the fields and hedgerows for her straying chick!

Later, she sat on the edge of her darling's bed and patted the curly
head resting on her faithful heart, to the accompaniment of little
clucking sounds.

"There now, dearie--there now--there now! It isn't worth crying over;
every river is as full of good fish as ever sailed on it in a boat that
couldn't run straight. Let old Nannie dry her baby's tears. There
how--there now!"

She dried the tear-stained little face with a big handkerchief, and
rocked her child to the rhythm of the music which drifted from the
hall, borne by the night breeze, through the open window, until the
sobs had ceased.

And in the ball-room the Thistleton family nodded their heads sagely to
the rhythm of the same music.

"I am sure she didn't see Mr. Kelham and Sybil, Mamma," Ellen was
saying. "She was having tea when we went to find her, and looked quite
all right."

"I was thankful when I saw her," broke in Berenice, patting a thick
envelope with the Edinburgh post-mark. "On the _Nile_, together, it
really did not seem _comme il faut_ at all, and wherever Mrs. Sidmouth
was, she might have countenanced the--er--the courtship by her presence
on deck."

"Well, all's well that ends well," said Mamma placidly, as sh