"She is beautiful!" I acquiesced. Miss Pat talked on quickly, as though our silence might cause Helen to turn and thus deprive us of the picture. "Should you like to look over the house?" I asked a little later, when Helen had come back to the table. "It is said to be one of the finest houses in interior America, and there are some good pictures." "We should be very glad," said Miss Pat; and Helen murmured assent. "But we must not stay too long, Aunt Pat. Mr. Donovan has his own affairs. We must not tax his generosity too far." "And we are going to send some letters off to-day. If it isn't asking too much, I should like to drive to the village later," said Miss Pat. "Yes; and I should like a paper of pins and a new magazine," said Helen, a little, a very little eagerness in her tone. "Certainly. The stable is at your disposal, and our entire marine." "But we must see the Glenarm pictures first," said Miss Pat, and we went at once into the great cool house, coming at last to the gallery on the third floor. "Whistler!" Miss Pat exclaimed in delight before the famous _Lady in the Gray Cloak_. "I thought that picture was owned in England." "It was; but old Mr. Glenarm had to have it. That Meissonier is supposed to be in Paris, but you see it's here." "It's wonderful!" said Miss Pat. She returned to the Whistler and studied it with rapt attention, and I stood by, enjoying her pleasure. One of the housemaids had followed us to the gallery and opened the French windows giving upon a balcony, from which the lake lay like a fold of blue silk beyond the wood. Helen had passed on while Miss Pat hung upon the Whistler. "How beautifully those draperies are suggested, Helen. That is one of the best of all his things." But Helen was not beside her, as she had thought. There were several recesses in the room, and I thought the girl had stepped into one of these, but just then I saw her shadow outside. "Miss Holbrook is on the balcony," I said. "Oh, very well. We must go," she replied quietly, but lingered before the picture. I left Miss Pat and crossed the room to the balcony. As I approached one of the doors I saw Helen, standing tiptoe for greater height, slowly raise and lower her handkerchief thrice, as though signaling to some one on the water. I laughed outright as I stepped beside her. "It's better to be a picture than to look at one, Miss Holbrook! Allow me!" In her confusion she had dropped her handkerchief, and when I returned it she slipped it into her cuff with a murmur of thanks. A flash of anger lighted her eyes and she colored slightly; but she was composed in an instant. And, looking off beyond the water-tower, I was not surprised to see the _Stiletto_ quite near our shore, her white sails filling lazily in the scant wind. A tiny flag flashed recognition and answer of the girl's signal, and was hauled down at once.