now, in the light of Spencer's open scorn, I saw it was impudently
false, childish, sentimental. My head ached, the humidity sapped my
strength, at heart I felt sick, sore, discouraged. I was down and
out. And seeing this, Temptation, like an obsequious floorwalker,
came hurrying forward.

"And what may I show you to-day?" asked Temptation. He showed me
the upper deck of the New Bedford boat feeling her way between the
green banks of the Sound. A cool wind swept past me bearing clean,
salty odors; on the saloon deck a band played, and from the
darkness the lighthouses winked at me, and in friendly greeting the
stars smiled. Temptation won. In five minutes I was feverishly
packing, and at five-thirty I was on board. I assured myself I had
not listened to Temptation, that I had no interest in Fairharbor.
was taking the trip solely because it would give me a night's sleep
on the Sound. I promised myself that on the morrow I would not even
LOOK toward Harbor Castle; but on the evening following on the same
boat, return to New York. Temptation did not stop to argue, but
hastened after another victim.

I turned in at nine o'clock and the coolness, and the salt air,
blessed me with the first sleep I had known in weeks. And when I
woke we were made fast to the company's wharf at New Bedford, and
the sun was well up. I rose refreshed in body and spirit. No longer
was I discouraged. Even "The White Plume of Savoy" seemed a
perfectly good tale of romance and adventure. And the Farrells were
a joke. Even if I were at Fairlharbor, I was there only on a lark,
and at the expense of Curtis Spencer, who had paid for the tickets.
Distinctly the joke was on Curtis Spencer. I lowered the window
screen, and looked across the harbor. It was a beautiful harbor. At