ysical setting-up
performance, and a lark of enormous magnitude. And everybody envied the
fortunate sailors.

Mavick actually did enjoy it, for he had that brooding sort of nature,
that self-satisfied attitude, that is able to appropriate to its own
uses whatever comes. And being an unemotional and very tolerable sailor,
he was able to be as cynical at sea as on land, and as much of an
oracle, in his wholly unobtrusive way. The perfect personal poise of
Mavick, which gave him an air of patronizing the ocean, and his lightly
held skeptical view of life, made his company as full of flavor on ship
as it was on shore. He didn't know anything more about the weather than
the Weather Bureau knows, yet the helmsman of the yacht used to consult
him about the appearances of the sky and a change of wind with a
confidence in his opinion that he gave to no one else on board. And
Mavick never forfeited this respect by being too positive. It was so
with everything; he evidently knew a great deal more than he cared to
tell. It is pleasing to notice how much credit such men as Mavick
obtain in the world by circumspect reticence and a knowing manner.
Jack, blundering along in his free-hearted, emotional way, and never
concealing his opinion, was really right twice where Mavick was right
once, but he never had the least credit for wisdom.

It was late in August that the Delancy yacht steamed into the splendid
Bar Harbor, making its way slowly through one of the rare fogs which are
sometimes seen by people who do not own real estate there. Even before
they could see an island those on board felt the combination of mountain
and sea air that makes this favored place at once a tonic and a sedative
to the fashionable world.

The party were expected at Bar Harbor. It had been announced that the
yacht was on its way, and some of the projected gayeties were awaiting
its coming, for the society reenforcement of the half-dozen men on
board was not to be despised. The news went speedily round that Captain
Delancy's flag was flying at the anchorage off the landing.

Among the first to welcome them as they landed and strolled up to the
hotel was Major Fairfax.

"Oh yes," he said; "we are all here--that is, all who know where they
ought to be at the right moment."

To the new-comers the scene was animated. The exotic shops sparkled
with cheap specialties; landaus, pony-phaetons, and elaborate buckboards
dashed through the streets; aquatic and la