set, and whom Mr. Banks wouldn't indorse commercially."

"Ah, you don't know my brother, Mr. Brace."

"Nor do you, very well, Miss Keene. You were saying, only last night,
you hardly remembered him."

The young girl sighed.

"I was very young when he went West," she said explanatorily; "but I
dare say I shall recall him. What I meant is, that he will be very glad
to know that I have been so happy here, and he will like all those who
have made me so."

"Then you have been happy?"

"Yes; very." She had withdrawn her eyes, and was looking vaguely towards
the companion-way. "Everybody has been so kind to me."

"And you are grateful to all?"

"Yes."

"Equally?"

The ship gave a sudden forward plunge. Miss Keene involuntarily clutched
the air with her little hand, that had been resting on the settee
between them, and the young man caught it in his own.

"Equally?" he repeated, with an assumed playfulness that half veiled his