“I’m sure I don’t know, child; evidently, she belonged to a different sphere in life before she came to us. I only wish your grandfather had been at the poles that night she went to the library to beguile him with her pretty face,” returned the maternal Coolidge, impatiently. “Oh, you begin to think she is pretty, do you?” sneered her dutiful daughter. “Wilbur evidently thinks so, if I do not,” was the moody reply. Brownie’s quick ears had caught every word, and she very coldly refused the glass of ice water which the young man in question at that moment brought her. She then settled herself upon the couch and closed her eyes, thus intimating her desire to be left alone. Upon the deck above them there paced a young man, with bent head and thoughtful brow. He was tall and exceedingly well-formed, his broad, full chest and square shoulders giving one the impression of great strength and powers of endurance. He looked the Englishman every inch, and a very noble one withal. He was not handsome, like Wilbur Coolidge, but he possessed a face of decision and truth. He had deep, thoughtful gray eyes, a good mouth with kindly lines about it, and an expression of great firmness and character withal. It was a true, good face—a face to be trusted under any circumstances. “How does she happen to be here, I wonder?” he muttered, with a far-away look out over the waters. “I know she left Philadelphia soon after her aunt’s death,” he continued, “and though Gordon tried hard to find where she had gone, he could not. She faded out of the fashionable world in which she used to move as completely and suddenly as a fallen star drops out of existence. I’m glad now I did not leave the button with him, as he wished me to do; no, I’ll give it to her with my own hands, or I will keep it forever!” He walked absently to the side of the steamer, and stood looking into the turbid waters beneath; and not long after two ladies drew near, and he overheard the following conversation: “Mamma, I tell you we shall have trouble with that governess as sure as the world.” “I hope not,” replied the elder lady, with a troubled look. “Wilbur is over head and ears in love with her already, and it will be just like her to lead him on for the sake of gaining a good position in the world,” and the young lady’s tone was exceedingly disagreeable. “Well, it cannot be helped now; you must make yourself so interesting and agreeable that he will prefer your society to that of any one’s else; you must monopolize him during the voyage, and when we are once settled, I will see that she does not have any spare time to flirt.” “Talk about her having a fall,” continued Isabel Coolidge, indignantly. “Alma saw the whole proceeding, and says it was nothing but a stumble. She said a gentleman caught her, and saved her from going to the floor, and she lay back in his arms as helplessly and gracefully as any heroine in a novel.”