Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Bosom Friends A Seaside Story [Illustration: The namesakes (page 48).] By ANGELA BRAZIL Bosom Friends A Seaside Story THOMAS NELSON AND SONS, LTD. LONDON, EDINBURGH, AND NEW YORK PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN AT THE PRESS OF THE PUBLISHERS. _CONTENTS._ I. Fellow-travellers 5 II. Mrs. Stewart's Letter 21 III. A Meeting on the Sands 33 IV. The Sea Urchins' Club 48 V. A Hot Friendship 60 VI. On the Cliffs 75 VII. The "Stormy Petrel" 87 VIII. Cross-purposes 108 IX. Silversands Tower 119 X. Wild Maidenhair 132 XI. The Island 144 XII. A First Quarrel 158 XIII. Reading the Runes 173 XIV. A Wet Day 187 XV. Tea with Mr. Binks 201 XVI. Belle's New Friend 217 XVII. The Chase 231 XVIII. Good-bye 243 BOSOM FRIENDS. CHAPTER I. FELLOW-TRAVELLERS. "Say, is it fate that has flung us together, We who from life's varied pathways thus meet?" It was a broiling day at the end of July, and the railway station at Tiverton Junction was crowded with passengers. Porters wheeling great truckfuls of luggage strove to force a way along the thronged platform, anxious mothers held restless children firmly by the hand, harassed fathers sought to pack their families into already overflowing compartments, excited cyclists were endeavouring to disentangle their machines from among the piles of boxes and portmanteaus, a circus and a theatrical company were loud in their lamentations for certain reserved corridor carriages which had not arrived, while a patient band of Sunday-school teachers was struggling to keep together a large party of slum children bound for a sea-side camp. The noise was almost unbearable. The ceaseless whistling of the engines, the shouts of the porters, the banging of carriage doors, the eager inquiries of countless perplexed passengers, made a combination calculated to give a headache to the owner of the stoutest nerves, and to drive timid travellers to distraction. All the world seemed off for its holiday, and the bustle and confusion of its departure was nearly enough to make some sober-minded parents wish they had stayed at home.