The others looked round rather startled when she spoke. She was wearing a brown holland frock, which Aunt Felicia had made for her, and which was not exactly becoming, but nothing could take from the bonny expression of her open face, and her very words brought comfort to Mr Durrant's heart. "That girl is the girl for me," he said to himself. "Who would compare her to Harriet Lane?" But then he noticed--and he gave a quick sigh-- that Ralph's little hand was locked in Harriet's, and that he was standing close to the tall, thin girl. Soon afterwards, the entire party went on deck, and Ralph, after sitting up for some time, was obliged to go down to the pretty cabin which he shared with his father. "Oh--I am so sleepy!" he said. "I shan't sleep without rocking, for I'll be rocked all night by the sea, won't I, father?" "Yes, my son," replied his father; "and may you sleep without dreams." He kissed the little brown face as he spoke. The brown eyes looked into the browner eyes of the man, and the man felt that in all the wide world there was no one so precious to him as that little child who was not yet six years of age. "If only I could give up my life of adventure for his sake! Dare I leave him?" thought Mr Durrant. "I could, with Robina," was his next thought. He looked across at the group of girls, who, on different deck-chairs, were gently swaying to the pleasant rhythmic motion of the yacht. There were certainly prettier girls on board, but there was no one, to Mr Durrant's mind, so altogether satisfactory as Robina. How was it that even at this juncture, Ralph scarcely kissed Robina at all, but clasped his arms round Harriet's neck, and whispered something in her ear? and why did Harriet return his kiss with a sort of eager passion and then turn and talk to Jane in an undertone? Mr Durrant felt he did not like it. He was restless, in spite of himself, and though he had vowed that dull Care should not enter the "Sea-Gull," and that during the happy week on board no _contretemps_ should take place, he was all the time thinking, first of Harriet, and then again of Robina, and then again of Harriet. The first two days on board passed without any sort of adventure. The party landed and saw almost all the places of interest on the Isle of Wight, and generally entered some little harbour to spend the night. The weather continued to be most propitious. There was no one either sea-sick or sorry; nevertheless, Mr Durrant felt more and more as though that choice which he was about to make were becoming one of greater anxiety each moment. On the third day of the little party's residence on board the "Sea-Gull," Ralph, who woke very early, left his own berth and climbed into his father's. "Is you waking up, father?" he said. "Is you going to talk to your little brown boy?" "Of course I am, Ralph," answered Durrant, opening one sleepy eye, and glancing comically at Ralph as he perched himself on one side of the bed.