"Ardita, I have just received a telephone message from the shore---" "Telephone?" She showed for the first time a faint interest. "Yes, it was---" "Do you mean to say," she interrupted wonderingly, "'at they let you run a wire out here?" "Yes, and just now---" "Won't other boats bump into it?" "No. It's run along the bottom. Five min---" "Well, I'll be darned! Gosh! Science is golden or something--isn't it?" "Will you let me say what I started to?" "Shoot!" "Well it seems--well, I am up here--" He paused and swallowed several times distractedly. "Oh, yes. Young woman, Colonel Moreland has called up again to ask me to be sure to bring you in to dinner. His son Toby has come all the way from New York to meet you and he's invited several other young people. For the last time, will you---" "No," said Ardita shortly, "I won't. I came along on this darn cruise with the one idea of going to Palm Beach, and you knew it, and I absolutely refuse to meet any darn old colonel or any darn young Toby or any darn old young people or to set foot in any other darn old town in this crazy state. So you either take me to Palm Beach or else shut up and go away." "Very well. This is the last straw. In your infatuation for this man--a man who is notorious for his excesses--a man your father would not have allowed to so much as mention your name--you have rejected the demi-monde rather than the circles in which you have presumably grown up. From now on---" "I know," interrupted Ardita ironically, "from now on you go your way and I go mine. I've heard that story before. You know I'd like nothing better." "From now on," he announced grandiloquently, "you are no niece of mine. I---" "O-o-o-oh!" The cry was wrung from Ardita with the agony of a lost soul. "Will you stop boring me! Will you go 'way! Will you jump overboard and drown! Do you want me to throw this book at you!" "If you dare do any---" Smack! The Revolt of the Angels sailed through the air, missed its target by the length of a short nose, and bumped cheerfully down the companionway. The gray-haired man made an instinctive step backward and then two cautious steps forward. Ardita jumped to her five feet four and stared at him defiantly, her gray eyes blazing. "Keep off!" "How dare you!" he cried. "Because I darn please!" "You've grown unbearable! Your disposition---" "You've made me that way! No child ever has a bad disposition unless it's her fancy's fault! Whatever I am, you did it." Muttering something under his breath her uncle turned and, walking forward called in a loud voice for the launch. Then he returned to the awning, where Ardita had again seated herself and resumed her attention to the lemon.