at were said about her, and who said them?" Livingstone
spoke with extreme courtesy; but there was something in his tone that
caused Mr. Port suddenly to think of the tip of Prince Sporetti's left
ear, and that led him to reply hurriedly, and by no means lucidly:

"Certainly--no--yes--that is to say, I can't exactly remember anything
in particular. I'm sure I was led to believe from what was said that she
was a very charming woman. No, I don't remember at all."

"Ah, perhaps it is just as well," Livingstone replied, gravely. "But how
lucky!" he added; "there she is now. Everybody is at the Casino about
this time of day, I fancy. May I bring her over and present her to you,
Miss Lee?"

"Of course you may, Mr. Livingstone. I shall be delighted to meet her.
And if she is to matronize me, the sooner that I begin to get accustomed
to her severities the better."

And then Mr. Hutchinson Port suffered a fresh pang of misery when the
presentation was accomplished and he was forced to say approximately
pleasant things to a lady whose decidedly ballet-like attire in the
surf--or, to be precise, on the beach above high-water-mark, where,
for some occult reason, she usually saw fit to do the most of her
bathing--joined to the exceeding celerity of her conduct generally, had
marked her during the preceding season as the conspicuous centre of one
phase of life at the Pier. Nor was Mr. Port's lot made happier as
he listened to the brisk discussion that ensued in regard to the
organization of the yachting party, and found that its two remaining
members were to be drawn, as was only natural, from the eminently
meteoric set to which Mrs. Rattleton belonged.

Had time been given Mr. Port for consideration it is probable that he
would have collected his mental forces sufficiently to have enabled him
to lodge a remonstrance; he might even--though this is doubtful, for
Dorothy's voting power was vigorous--have accomplished a veto. But
projects in which Mrs. Rattleton was concerned never went slowly; and
in the present case the necessity for getting back in time for the
races really compelled haste. And so it came to pass that not until
the _Fleetwings_ was off the Brenton's Reef light-ship, with her nose
pointed well up into the north-east, was there framed in Mr. Port's
slow-moving mind a suitable line of argument upon which to base a
peremptory refusal to go upon the expedition--and by that time he was so
excruciatingly ill in his own