paces. Mrs. Sancy bowed and left us. Mr. Kittredge seemed to have lost
the power of speech.

Fifteen minutes after I was sitting on some drift-wood, watching the
pranks of the gayest of the crowd as they "jumped the rollers," when
Mrs. Sancy came out of a dressing-room, followed by her Kanaka with a
surf-board. Her bathing-dress was very jaunty and becoming, and her
skill as a swimmer drew to her a great deal of attention. To swim out
and float in on the rollers seemed to be to her no more of a feat than
it would be to a sea-gull, she did it so easily and gracefully. But
to-day something went wrong with her. Either she was too warm from
riding, or her circulation was disturbed by the meeting with Kittredge,
or both; at all events the second time she swam out she failed to
return. The board slipped away from her, and she sank out of sight.

While I gazed horror-stricken, scarce understanding what had taken
place, a man rushed past me in his bathing clothes, running out to where
the water was deep enough to float him, and striking out rapidly from
there. I could not recognize him in that dress, but I knew it was
Kittredge. Fate had sent him. The incoming tide kept her where she sank,
and he soon brought her to the surface and through the surf to the
beach. I spread my cloak on the sand, and, wrapping her in it, began
rubbing and rolling her, with the assistance of other ladies, for
resuscitation from drowning.

In three minutes more Kittredge was kneeling by my side with a
brandy-flask, administering its contents drop by drop, and giving
orders. "It is congestion," said he. "You must rub her chest, her back,
her hands and feet; so, so. She will die in your hands if you are not
quick. For God's sake, work fast!"

By his presence of mind she was saved as by a miracle. When she was
removed to her lodgings, and able to converse, she asked me who it was
that had rescued her.

"Mr. Kittredge," I said.

"The same I met on the beach?"

"The same."

She smiled in a faint, half-dreaming way, and turned away her face. She
thought I did not know her secret.

I am not going to let my hero take advantage of the first emotion of
gratitude after a service, to mention his wishes in, as many
story-tellers do. I consider it a mean advantage; besides Mr. Kittredge
did not do it. In fact, he absented himself for a week. When he
returned, I introduced him formally to Mrs. Sancy, and we three walked
together down to the beach, and s