"Do you care for this sort of thing?" he suddenly asked. "What sort of thing do you mean?" "Oh, all this jigging and waltzing and amusement." "I don't know how to 'jig,' but it's delightful to look on," she answered merrily. "I never saw anything so pretty in my life." The happy tone of her voice and the unruffled face which she turned upon him quieted his irritation. "I really believe you mean it," he said; "and yet, if you won't think me rude to say so, most girls would consider the thing dull enough if they were only getting out of it what you are,--if they were not dancing, I mean, and nobody in particular was trying to entertain them." "But everything _is_ being done to entertain me," cried Katy. "I can't imagine what makes you think that it could seem dull. I am in it all, don't you see,--I have my share--. Oh, I am stupid, I can't make you understand." "Yes, you do. I understand perfectly, I think; only it is such a different point of view from what girls in general would take." (By girls he meant Lilly!) "Please do not think me uncivil." "You are not uncivil at all; but don't let us talk any more about me. Look at the lights between the shadows of the masts on the water. How they quiver! I never saw anything so beautiful, I think. And how warm it is! I can't believe that we are in December and that it is nearly Christmas." "How is Polly going to celebrate her Christmas? Have you decided?" "Amy is to have a Christmas-tree for her dolls, and two other dolls are coming. We went out this morning to buy things for it,--tiny little toys and candles fit for Lilliput. And that reminds me, do you suppose one can get any Christmas greens here?" "Why not? The place seems full of green." "That's just it; the summer look makes it unnatural. But I should like some to dress the parlor with if they could be had." "I'll see what I can find, and send you a load." I don't know why this very simple little talk should have made an impression on Lieutenant Worthington's mind, but somehow he did not forget it. "'Don't let us talk any more about me,'" he said to himself that night when alone in his cabin. "I wonder how long it would be before the other one did anything to divert the talk from herself. Some time, I fancy." He smiled rather grimly as he unbuckled his sword-belt. It is unlucky for a girl when she starts a train of reflection like this. Lilly's little attempt to pique her admirer had somehow missed its mark. The next afternoon Katy in her favorite place on the beach was at work on the long weekly letter which she never failed to send home to Burnet. She held her portfolio in her lap, and her pen ran rapidly over the paper, as rapidly almost as her tongue would have run could her correspondents have been brought nearer. "Nice, December 22.