t period? Is
it possible I am so easily fathomed?" she went on, smiling.

Now it is ill making love in a rowboat at best, and when one is in
earnest and the other jests it is well-nigh impossible; so to these
remarks Lieutenant Seymour made no further answer, save viciously to
ply the oars and drive the boat rapidly toward the landing.

Miss Katharine gazed vacantly about the familiar river upon whose banks
she had been born and bred, and, finally noticing the sun had gone
down, closing the short day, she once more drew her cloak closely about
her and resumed the neglected conversation.

"Won't you please stop looking at me in that manner, and won't you
please row harder, or is your strength all centred in your gaze?"

"I am rowing as fast as I can, Miss Wilton, especially with this--"

"Oh, I forgot your wounded shoulder! Does it hurt? Does it pain you?
I am so sorry. Let me row."

"Thank you, no. I think I can manage it myself. The only pain I have
is when you are unkind to me."

At that moment, to his great annoyance, his oar stuck fast in the
oar-lock, and he straightway did that very unsailorly thing known as
catching a crab.

Katharine Wilton laughed. There was music in her voice, but this time
it did not awaken a responsive chord in the young man. Extricating his
oar violently, he silently resumed his work.

"Do you like crabs, Mr. Seymour?" she said with apparent irrelevance.

"I don't like catching them, Miss Wilton," he admitted ruefully.

"Oh, I mean eating them! We were talking about your appetite, were we
not? Well, Dinah devils them deliciously. I 'll have some done for
you," she continued with suspicious innocence.

Seymour groaned in spirit at her perversity, and for the first time in
his life felt an intense sympathy with devilled crabs; but he continued
his labor in silence and with great dignity.

"What am I to infer from your silence on this important subject, sir?
The subject of edibles, which everybody says is of the first
importance--to men--does not appear to interest you at all!"

He made no further reply.

The young girl gazed at his pale face at first in much amusement; but
the laughter gradually died away, and finally her glance fell to the
water by her side. A few strong strokes, strong enough, in spite of a
wounded shoulder, to indicate wrathful purpose and sudden determination
to the astute maiden, and the little boat swung in beside the wharf.
Throwing the oa