Without a word the boy went into the house and Diana and Mrs. Lowell exchanged a look. Each was hoping the messenger would be successful and not draw upon himself a reprimand from the dark, impatient man smoking in the hammock. The boy returned empty-handed. "They--they weren't there," he said. "Weren't where, stu--" Mr. Gayne encountered Mrs. Lowell's gaze as he was in the middle of his epithet. Her eyes were not laughing now, and he restrained himself. "Weren't on the dresser, do you mean?" he continued in a quieter tone. "Well, didn't you look about any?" "Yes, sir. I looked on the--the trunk and on the--the floor." Mr. Gayne emitted an inarticulate sound which, but for the presence of the ladies, would evidently have been articulate. "Oh, well," he groaned, rising to a sitting posture on the side of the hammock, "I suppose I shall have to galvanize my old bones and go after them myself." His nephew's blank look did not change. He stood as if awaiting further orders, and his listless eyes met Mrs. Lowell's kindly gaze. "It is good fun to look through field-glasses in a place like this, isn't it, Bertie?" she said. The boy's surprise at being addressed was evident. "I--I don't know," he replied. His uncle laughed. "That's all the answer you'll ever get out of him, Mrs. Lowell. He's the champion don't-know-er." The boy's blank look continued the same. It was evident that his uncle's description of him was nothing new. "I don't believe that," said Mrs. Lowell. "I think Bertie and I are going to be friends. I like boys." The look she was giving the lad as she spoke seemed for a moment to attract his attention. "You won't--you won't like me," he said in his usual wooden manner. "Children and fools," laughed his uncle, rising from the hammock. "Mr. Gayne!" exclaimed Diana, electrified out of her customary serenity. The man's restless, dark eyes glanced quickly from the face of one woman to another, even alighting upon Miss Emerson whose countenance only gave its usual indication that the lady had just detected a very unpleasant odor. He laughed again, good-naturedly, and as he passed his nephew gave him a careless, friendly pat on the shoulder. The unexpected touch startled the boy and made him cringe. "Bert believes honesty is the best policy," he said. "Don't you, Bert?" "Yes, sir," replied the boy automatically. "Sit down here a minute, won't you, Bertie?" asked Mrs. Lowell, making a place beside her on the piazza rail. The boy obeyed. "Have you ever seen this great ocean before?" "No. Yes. I don't know." "Why, yes, you do know, of course," said Mrs. Lowell, with a soft little laugh, very intimate and pleasant. "You know whether you have seen the ocean before." The boy regarded her, and in the surprise of being really challenged to think, he meditated. "No," he said, at last. "I've never been here before." "Isn't it a beautiful place?" asked Mrs. Lowell.