matter of venturing his bilious body upon
the ocean she discovered that her uncle--although now reduced to a
fairly satisfactory state of submission in other respects--had a large
and powerful will of his own.

Fortune, however, favors the resolute even more decidedly than she
favors the brave. This fact Dorothy comprehended thoroughly, and
uniformly acted upon. Each time that even a remote possibility of a
yacht cruise presented itself she instantly brought her batteries
to bear; and, with a nice understanding of her uncle's intellectual
peculiarities, she each time treated the matter as though it never
before had been discussed.

Therefore it was that when Miss Lee's eyes were gladdened one day--just
as she and her uncle were about to begin their lunch on the shady
veranda of the Casino--by the sight of a trim schooner yacht sliding
down the wind from the direction of Newport, the subject of the cruise
was revived with a suddenness and point that Mr. Port found highly
disconcerting. The yacht rounded to off the Casino, and the sound of a
plunge and a clanking chain floated across the water as her anchor went
overboard.

[Illustration: The yacht rounded to off the Casino 060]

"Oh, isn't she a beauty!" exclaimed Dorothy, with enthusiasm. "Now,
Uncle Hutchinson, her owner is coming ashore--they have just brought
the gig round to the gangway--and if you don't know him you must get
somebody to introduce you to him; and then you must introduce him to me;
and then he will ask us to go on a cruise; and of course we will go,
and have just the loveliest time in the world. I haven't been on board
a yacht for nearly five years (just look at the gig: don't the men pull
splendidly?)--not since that nice little Lord Alderhone took poor dear
mamma and me up to Norway. We did have such a good time! Poor dear
mamma, of course, was desperately sick--she always was horribly
sea-sick, you know; but I'm never sea-sick the least bit, and it was
perfectly delightful. Look, Uncle Hutchinson, they've made the dock, and
now he's coming right up here. What a handsome man he is, and how well
he looks in his club uniform! It seems to me I've seen him somewhere. Do
you know him, Uncle Hutchinson?"

A serious difficulty under which Mr. Port labored in his dealings with
his niece was his inability--due to his Philadelphia habit of mind--to
keep up with the exceptionally rapid flow of her ideas. On the present
occasion, while he still was engag