When the packing was finished, to the very last article which had been overlooked, and for which the trunks had to be reopened, Kate and Fenie sat down to rest, and naturally each began to talk of the subject which was uppermost in the minds of both, and finally they became so confidential that Fenie exclaimed: "Wouldn't it be lovely if Jermyn were going North with us?" "Oh, Fenie!" murmured Kate, looking as Mother Eve probably looked when the gates of Eden closed behind her. "Why don't you make him?" asked the younger woman. "Make him? He is an officer of the Government, and has his duties to perform. Do you suppose I would dare ask him to neglect them?" "I'm sure I can't see what duties there can be to embarrass him, for there isn't any war going on." "No, but there seems to be so much else. Don't you remember that mysterious mission that took him and the Admiral North a few days ago? Jermyn must be of great importance, despite his modest rank, or he never would have been associated with an admiral, on public business." "I'd ask him, any way, if he were my lover, if only to make him happy for a moment," said Fenie. "Would you?" asked Kate. Should she be outdone in affectionate impulse by a mere girl like Fenie? She wondered what had become of Jermyn; then she said so. "He's out at the angle of this verandah, or was a half hour ago, Trixy told me; he was looking for the yacht of a friend. And Kate," continued Fenie hurriedly, for Kate had already started, "you needn't be afraid to talk to him, for there are no occupants of those rooms." Kate tripped out to the piazza and saw Jermyn with a face so sober that it shocked her. She approached him softly and touched his arm; he looked up quickly, but with an entirely different face. "Am I to go to New York all alone?" Kate asked, with a look which set Jermyn's well-controlled heart dancing, although its owner said, "What? Your brother, and Mrs. Highwood and Miss Wardlow--aren't they going?" "You know very well what I mean, you consummate hypocrite." "And you know very well, or you ought to," said Jermyn, "that I'd gladly follow you all over the earth. Still, I can't force myself upon the remainder of the party." "Then Trif shall invite you, at once," said Kate. "Trif," Fenie was saying at almost the same moment, as her sister returned from an unsuccessful search for Trixy, "Kate has gone out to ask Jermyn to accompany us North; wouldn't it be the graceful thing for you, as the head of the party, to add your request to hers?" "Where is he?" asked Trif. She was on the piazza soon after Fenie told her where the Lieutenant was. "How kind and thoughtful of you!" said Jermyn. "I suppose," he continued hypocritically, "that I might possibly get permission to be absent a few days longer if----" "That's all right," intruded the voice of Trixy. "You can go, and that ain't all--you'll get into a lot of trouble if you don't go. I've been to see the head man about it."