-an-hour before the hour set for
sailing, she always blew one long blast from her whistle. At fifteen
minutes to the hour she blew two shorter toots, and just on the eve of
departure three blasts loud and sharp. This final warning, which
Doctor Blair had profanely named the last trump, had been sounded, and
Roderick began to look anxious for she had not yet appeared nor Mrs.
Adams either. But he had gone sailing on picnics via the _Inverness_
too many times to be seriously alarmed. The door of the little
wheel-house where the captain had now taken his stand, commanded a view
of Main Street rising up from the water, and no native of Algonquin
could do him the injustice to suppose that he would sail away while any
one was waving to him from the hill.

A half dozen women were signalling him now, and the captain blew a
reassuring blast. And then round the corner from Elm Street, moving
leisurely, came a stout swaying figure, with floating draperies.
Children clung to her hands, children hung by her skirts, children ran
after her and children danced before her. And long before she reached
the water's edge could be heard her admonitions, "Now, you, Johnnie
Pickett, don't you dare to walk down there in the dirt. Maddie Willis,
just you tie that hat on your head again, you'll get a sunstroke, you
know you will. Jimmie Hurd, you leave that poor little dog alone--"

Roderick looked eagerly beyond the lady, and there she was, at the rear
of the procession, bringing up the stragglers. She was wearing a dress
of that dull blue he liked to see her wear, the blue that was just a
shade paler than her eyes, and she wore a big white shady hat. As she
came nearer he could see she was laughing at Johnnie Pickett's wicked
antics. Her face had lost all its old sadness. Roderick's heart was
filled with a great foreboding. Had Dick Wells' visit brought that new
colour to her cheek and the sparkle to her eyes? He wanted to go down
and help her and her flock on board, for Gladys Hurd and Mrs. Perkins
and Eddie and the baby were with her, and a half-dozen little folk were
asking each a half-dozen questions of her at one moment. But he stood
back shyly watching her from a distance, as Dr. Blair and Harry Lauder
and the rest of the Highland Club helped them on board, the Piper
meanwhile circling around Madame much to her disgust.

When they were all on board and the _Inverness_ had again given the
three short shrieks which announce