"I don't believe," he said, "that we've got any right to leave this fascinating retreat, and go down and face the crowd without being--well, without being engaged. That is, according to my idea of the Pallet-Searings' idea, we'd be considered a dull young couple, to say the least." "But I'd be cutting myself out of many a delightful hour here!" Leslie shook her head. "Not necessarily," he persisted. She tilted her head critically. "And this is all I'm to get for sitting out the best part of an evening with a girl, when I might have been down there with the madding crowd, having the time of my life," he added. Leslie moved to go. "We've made several false starts from here," she reminded him, "but we must go now without any further hesitation, and by separate routes. Good-bye," she said, and held out her hand. "Shall I see you at the landing-place at eight o'clock sharp in the morning?" Beekman drew her back. "At what landing-place?" he demanded, uncertain of her meaning. "What's going on?" The girl fell back helplessly before him. "Do you mean to tell me," she sighed forlornly, "that I have been here all this time with you without telling you the very thing I brought you here to tell?" "I only know," he returned, likewise forlornly, "that you won't let me tell you the thing that for hours I've been trying to tell." Leslie laughed gaily. "It was very delightful listening, anyway," she admitted frankly. "But about this other thing--I told everybody here, that is, everybody that's to go, but you--and you, why I wanted you the most of all." Beekman caught her hand and held it, despite her dignified little struggle. "You're sure of that?" "Quite sure," she replied, in a matter-of-fact tone. "You need a little tan--the sail would do you good. Why, twenty of us boys and girls,--besides some half-dozen chaperones--are going for the week-end on the _Marchioness_. Away out to sea as far as she can stand it, and back again. It ought to be good fun! There'll be only congenial people aboard--the right men for the right girls." "But for yourself, Miss Wilkinson, who----" "My dear young friend," she broke in upon his question, "inasmuch as I am hostess, I see no reason why I shouldn't have the whole ten men most of the time, do you? I'm a pretty fair manager about these things, you know," she went on interestedly, "and I thought for you that Jane Gerard...." Beekman coughed slightly and glanced at his watch. "A most delightful trip," he conceded, "and I should be glad, awfully glad to be able to take advantage of the opportunity if it were not that I am so very busy, and----" Leslie was quick to detect his annoyance, but went on, still flirtatiously: