“I don’t know. You were a bit in our way,” said Sir Charles. “We’d have got on better without you, we should, by George! You were an awful responsibility, Miss Stella. I shouldn’t have liked to have faced Lady Scott if Algy had kicked the bucket; and how I should have faced your father if you----” “If that was all you thought of, I shall never, never go out with you again,” cried Stella with an angry flush. But she could not make up her mind to throw over her two companions for so little. “It was jolly at first, wasn’t it?” she said, after a pause, “until Al--Captain Scott began to look up to the sky, and open his mouth for something to fall in.” But they did not laugh at this, though Mrs. Seton’s similar witticism had brought on fits of laughter. Captain Scott swore “By George!” softly under his breath; Sir Charles whistled--a very little, but he did whistle, at which sound Stella rose angry from her seat. “You don’t seem to care much for my visit,” she cried, “though it tired me very much to come. Oh, I know now what is meant by fair-weather friends. We were to be such chums. You were to do anything for me; and now, because it came on to blow--which was not my fault----” Here Stella’s voice shook, and she was very near bursting into tears. “Don’t say that, Miss Stella; it’s awfully jolly to see you, and it’s dreadful dull lying here.” “And weren’t all the old cats shocked!” cried Sir Charles. “Oh, fie!” putting up his hands to his eyes, “to find you had been out half the night along with Algy and me.” “I have not seen any old cats yet,” said Stella, recovering her temper, “only the young kittens, and they thought it a most terrible adventure--like something in a book. You don’t seem to think anything of that, you boys; you are all full of Captain Scott’s illness, as if that dreadful, dreadful sail was nothing, except just the way he caught cold. How funny that is! Now I don’t mind anything about catching cold or being in bed for a week; but the terrible sea, and the wind, and the dark--these are what I never can get out of my mind.” “You see you were in no danger to speak of; but Algy was, poor fellow. He is only just clear of it now.” “_I_ only got up for the first time a week ago,” said Stella, aggrieved; but she did not pursue the subject. “Mrs. Seton is coming across to see us--both the invalids, she says; and perhaps she is one of the old cats, for she says she is coming to scold me as well as to pet me. I don’t know what there is to scold about, unless perhaps she would have liked better to go out with you herself.” “That is just like Lottie Seton,” they both said, and laughed as Stella’s efforts never made them laugh. Why should they laugh at her very name when all the poor little girl could do in that way left them unmoved? “She’s a perfect dragon of virtue, don’t you know?” said Algy, opening his wide mouth. “And won’t she give it to the little ’un!” said Sir Charles, with another outburst.