"Oh!" Dick returned the young man's bow rather curtly. "I am glad of the chance of thanking you again, Blake. I would have looked you up, of course, in the morning. I was in my bathing suit at the time, and when I got dressed you had gone off duty. Here." He had taken out his pocketbook as he spoke, and now drew out a bill and held it out. "I thank you very much, Mr. Fenway," said the young man with what seemed to Dick to be surprisingly good manners for a fellow of his position, "but I can't take it. Miss Barnhelm had already rewarded me most liberally." He raised his cap politely, and with a brief good night stepped out of the circle of light and was swallowed up in the darkness. "What the devil are you laughing at, Lola?" demanded Dick angrily. "Do you see anything especially funny?" "Oh, no, dear; not at all," she answered, "and I think it would be a good thing if we were to go in to dinner." Once in the dining-room, Lola's high spirits seemed to desert her. She seemed languid and rather moody, and in spite of Bob's really eloquent description of various dishes that he had stamped with the seal of his approval, she refused to do more than nibble at a crust of bread and drink a glass or two of champagne, of which she had grown very fond. After dinner they went out on the veranda and met Mr. Bradley and Alice, and by them were introduced to many of the guests of the hotel. Lola, who in spite of her present bad temper was looking very well, soon found herself the centre of a lively group. There was no doubt at all of her success; she received the two infallible proofs--admiration from the men, envy from the women. She found herself seated next to the sweet-faced old gentleman whom she had noticed at the lunch table; he had his little granddaughter seated on his knee, and a very small and very aristocratic French poodle perched upon the arm of his chair. Of all the group these two alone, the child and the dog, refused to devote themselves to Lola; the child, after one long look into her eyes, had thrown her arms about the old man's neck and hidden her face on his shoulder; the dog had bared his little teeth in a snarl at the first touch of her hand. "Quiet, Tony," reproved Mr. Miller sharply, as he changed the dog to the other arm of his chair. "I can't think why he should act so queerly, Miss Barnhelm, nor you, either, Molly," he said as he stroked the child's head lovingly. "You are both tired out, I think, and you must go to bed." "Will you come upstairs and hear me say my prayers in a little while, grandfather?" asked little Molly in a low voice. "Nurse and mother are there, but I think God can hear me better when you are with me." [Illustration: LOLA GOES TO KEEP HER APPOINTMENT AT THE STEEL PIER.]