othy's grumpiness produced an effect distinctly bilious--when the end
of July arrived and his own and his charming ward's views once more were
brought into harmony by the move to Narragansett Pier. Fortunately,
while somewhat disposed to stand upon her own rights, Miss Lee was not
a person who bore malice; a pleasing fact that became manifest on the
moment that she began to pack her trunks.

"I am afraid, Uncle Hutchinson," she observed, on the morning that this
important step towards departure was taken--"I am afraid that during the
past week or so your angel may not have been quite as much of an angel
as usual."

"No," replied Mr. Port, with a colloquial disregard of grammatical
construction, and with perhaps unnecessary emphasis, "I don't think she
has."

"But from this moment onward," Dorothy continued, courteously ignoring
her uncle's not too courteous interpolation, and airily relegating into
oblivion the recent past, "she expects to manifest her angelic qualities
to an extent that will make her appear unfit for earth. Very possibly
she may even grow a pair of wings and fly quite away from you,
sir--right up among the clouds, where the other angels are! And how
would you like that, Uncle Hutchinson?"

In the sincere seclusion of his inner consciousness Mr. Port admitted
the thought that if Dorothy had resolved herself into an angelic
_vol-au-vent_ (a simile that came naturally to his mind) at any time
during the preceding fortnight he probably would have accepted the
situation with a commendable equanimity. But what he actually said was
that her departure in this aerated fashion would make him profoundly
miserable. Mr. Port was a little astonished at himself when he was
delivered of this gallant speech; for gallant speeches, as he very well
knew, were not at all in his line.

On the amicable basis thus established, Miss Lee and her guardian
resumed their travels; and, excepting only Mr. Port's personal misery
incident to the alimentary exigencies of railway transportation, their
journey from the central region of New York to the seaboard of Rhode
Island was accomplished without misadventure.

IV.

In regard to Narragansett Pier, Miss Lee's opinions, the which she was
neither slow in forming nor unduly cautious in expressing, at first were
unfavorable.

"And so _this_ is 'the Pier,' is it?" she observed in a tone by no means
expressive of approval as she stood on the hotel veranda on the day
of her