At the age of
twenty-one, Paul was more mature in experience and knowledge than many
young men at twenty-five; and hardly had he been placed in possession
of his inheritance than he sailed for Europe, and, of course, hastened
from Queenstown to Belfast, where Mr. Arbuckle, father of the lady who
occupied the stern-sheets of the barge, resided. Six months later he
was married to Grace, who still regarded him as "the apple of her
eye."

On his return to New York his yacht was finished, though too late
in the season for use that year. Her first voyage in the spring
was to Brockway, which was the residence of Mr. Lowington, and the
headquarters of the Academy Squadron. Learning that his old friend the
principal was about to sail for Europe with his charge, he promptly
decided to accompany him, and the Grace was one of the fleet that
crossed the Atlantic in April.

Mrs. Kendall was dressed in a plain travelling suit. She was taller
and more mature than when she went down the Rhine with the Young
Americans, but she was not less beautiful and interesting.

If Fortune had been very kind to Paul Kendall, she had not been so
constant to all who formerly sailed in the Young America, and who had
then basked in her sunny smile. The third person in the stern-sheets
of the barge was Mr. Augustus Pelham. He was a fine-looking fellow,
with a heavy mustache, dressed like his commander, in the uniform
of the yacht club. By one of those disasters common in American
mercantile experience, Pelham's father had suddenly been hurled from
apparent affluence to real poverty. Being well advanced in years, he
could do nothing better for himself and his family than to accept a
situation as secretary of an insurance company, which afforded him a
salary only sufficient to enable him to live in comfort. Augustus
had completed his course in the Academy ship when the change of
circumstances compelled him to abandon all luxurious habits, and work
for his own living. This was by no means a calamity to him, any more
than to other young men. Doubtless it was annoying to have his
allowance of pocket money suddenly stopped, and to find himself face
to face with one of the sternest realities of life. His training in
the Academy ship had been a blessing to him, for it had reformed his
life, and elevated his tastes above the low level of dissipation. It
had made a new man of him, besides preparing him for a useful
calling. He was competent, so far as nautica