GROSVENOR SQUARE, _Thursday._ DEAR CHARMIAN,--You've never been on the yacht, though I've always been dying to have you come. I've been glued to London for quite a time, and am getting sick of it. Aren't you? Always the same things and people. I feel I must run away if I can get up a pleasant party to elope with me. Will you be one? I thought of starting some time next month on _The Wanderer_ for a cruise, to the Mediterranean or somewhere. I don't know yet who'll tuck in, but I shall take Susan Fleet to play chaperon to us and the crew and manage things. Max Elliot may come, and I thought of trying to get your friend, Mr. Heath, though I hardly know him. I think he works too hard, and a breeze might do him good. However, it's all in the air. Tell me what you think about it. Love to the beautiful mother.--In tearing haste, Yours, ADELAIDE SHIFFNEY. "Why has she asked me?" said Charmian to herself, laying this note down after reading it twice. She had always known Mrs. Shiffney, but she had never before been asked to go on a cruise in the yacht. Mrs. Shiffney had always called her Charmian, as she called Mrs. Mansfield Violet. But there had never been even a hint of genuine intimacy between the girl and the married woman, and they seldom met except in society, and then only spoke a few casual and unmeaning words. They had little in common, Charmian supposed, except their mutual knowledge of quantities of people and of a certain social life. Claude Heath on _The Wanderer_! Charmian took the note to her mother. "Mrs. Shiffney has suddenly taken a fancy to me, Madretta," she said. "Look at this!" Mrs. Mansfield read the note and gave it back. "Do you want to go?" she asked, looking at the girl, not without a still curiosity. Charmian twisted her lips. "I don't know. You see, it's all very vague. I should like to be sure who's going. I think it's very reckless to take any chances on a yacht." "Claude Heath isn't going." Charmian raised her eyebrows. "But has she asked him?" "Yes. And he's refused. He told me so on Monday." "You're quite sure he won't go?" "He said he wasn't going." Charmian looked lightly doubtful. "Shall I go?" she said. "Would you mind if I did?" "Do you really want to?" "I don't think I care much either way. Why has she asked me?" "Adelaide? I daresay she likes you. And you wouldn't be unpleasant on a yacht, would you?" "That depends, I expect. You'd allow me to go?" "If I knew who the rest of the party were to be--definitely." "I won't answer till to-morrow."