ouble. If he were only in love with her! If she were not
so manifestly advantageous, then he might think his feeling was more
than friendship; for she was everything that he admired.

He was just in this frame of mind when a letter came from Rhodes, who
had come home soon after Keith's visit to him. He had not been very
well, and they had decided to take a yacht-cruise in Southern waters,
and would he not come along? He could join them at either Hampton Roads
or Savannah, and they were going to run over to the Bermudas.

Keith telegraphed that he would join them, and two days later turned his
face to the South. Twenty-four hours afterwards he was stepping up the
gangway and being welcomed by as gay a group as ever fluttered
handkerchiefs to cheer a friend. Among them the first object that had
caught his eye as he rowed out was the straight, lithe figure of Mrs.
Lancaster. A man is always ready to think Providence interferes
specially in his, case, provided the interpretation accords with his own
views, and this looked to Keith very much as if it were Providence. For
one thing, it saved him the trouble of thinking further of a matter
which, the more he thought of it, the more he was perplexed. She came
forward with the others, and welcomed him with her old frank, cordial
grasp of the hand and gracious air. When he was comfortably settled, he
felt a distinct self-content that he had decided to come.

A yacht-cruise is dependent on three things: the yacht itself, the
company on board, and the weather. Keith had no cause to complain of
any of these.

The "Virginia Dare" was a beautiful boat, and the weather was
perfect--just the weather for a cruise in Southern waters. The company
were all friends of Keith; and Keith found himself sailing in Summer
seas, with Summer airs breathing about him. Keith was at his best. He
was richly tanned by exposure, and as hard as a nail from work in the
open air. Command of men had given him that calm assurance which is the
mark of the captain. Ambition--ambition to be, not merely to
possess--was once more calling to him with her inspiring voice, and as
he hearkened his face grew more and more distinguished. Providence,
indeed, or Grinnell Rhodes was working his way, and it seemed to him--he
admitted it with a pang of contempt for himself at the admission--that
Mrs. Lancaster was at least acquiescent in their hands. Morning after
morning they sat together in the shadow of the sail, and ev