Miss Sallie looked sharply at the speaker. The De Lancey Smythes were evidently unaware of Mr. Warren's animosity toward them. She was about to frame some polite excuse for not going on the launch, hoping to thus nip in the bud the proposed sail, when suddenly meeting Mr. Warren's eyes, she saw an expression of entreaty in them that made her hesitate. "I hope you and your 'Automobile Girls' will not disappoint me," he said pleadingly. "Thank you," responded Miss Stuart. "We shall be pleased to go." With a formal bow to Mrs. De Lancey Smythe and her daughter, Miss Sallie marshaled her little force and left the piazza. "Very charming people," remarked Mrs. De Lancey Smythe, to Maud Warren, after they had disappeared. But there was an unpleasant light in her eyes, and a certain tightening of her lips that showed resentment at the manner of her reception by the Stuart party. "We shall be obliged to play our cards very carefully," she warned Marian, when in the privacy of their own apartment. "That Miss Stuart seems already inclined to be hostile. As for those girls----" "I think they're the nicest looking girls I've seen for a long time. Ever so much nicer than Maud Warren," exclaimed Marian. "Hold your tongue," commanded her mother angrily. "Don't let me hear any more remarks of that kind, or you'll have cause to regret them." Marian relapsed into sulky silence. She knew her mother only too well. Nevertheless she made up her mind to try honestly to make a good impression upon the first girls with whom she had ever wished to be friends. Mr. Stuart and Mr. Warren did not at once follow their respective charges in to luncheon, but sat down on a wide settee in one corner of the piazza for a long talk. One topic of conversation followed another, until at last Mr. Warren lowered his voice and said: "Stuart, I am going to ask a favor of you because I need your help more than I can say. You see," he went on, his face flushing painfully with embarrassment, "I have tried to give my daughter the proper sort of care. I have certainly spared no money in the effort. But what can money, alone, do for a motherless girl?" His voice choked a little. "Perhaps I should have married again, if only on Maud's account. But I tell you, Bob, I couldn't. My wife's memory is still too dear to me. No other woman has ever interested me." He paused a moment, then looked away, while Mr. Stuart patted his shoulder sympathetically.