offended. I came here with ladies--and they wouldn't let me smoke. I
miss my smoke. I thought I'd slip away a bit and have it. All right!
I'll play."

"Oh! smoke by all means!" retorted Blanche. "I shall choose somebody
else. I won't have you!"

The honorable young gentleman looked unaffectedly relieved. The petulant
young lady turned her back on him, and surveyed the guests at the other
extremity of the summer-house.

"Who shall I choose?" she said to herself.

A dark young man--with a face burned gipsy-brown by the sun; with
something in his look and manner suggestive of a roving life, and
perhaps of a familiar acquaintance with the sea--advanced shyly, and
said, in a whisper:

"Choose me!"

Blanche's face broke prettily into a charming smile. Judging from
appearances, the dark young man had a place in her estimation peculiarly
his own.

"You!" she said, coquettishly. "You are going to leave us in an hour's
time!"

He ventured a step nearer. "I am coming back," he pleaded, "the day
after to-morrow."