And her victory over him had been an easy one.
Held first by the spell of her beauty and controlled
later by her tact and stronger will, the young man's
effrontery--almost impudence at times--had changed
to a certain respectful subservience, which showed
itself in his constant effort to please and amuse her.
When they were not sailing they were back in the
orchard out of sight of the house, or were walking
together nobody knew where. Often Bart would call
for her immediately after breakfast, and the two
would pack a lunch-basket and be gone all day, Lucy
arranging the details of the outing, and Bart entering
into them with a dash and an eagerness which,
to a man of his temperament, cemented the bond
between them all the closer. Had they been two
fabled denizens of the wood--she a nymph and he a
dryad--they could not have been more closely linked
with sky and earth.

As for Jane, she watched the increasing intimacy
with alarm. She had suddenly become aroused to
the fact that Lucy's love affair with Bart was going
far beyond the limits of prudence. The son of Captain
Nathaniel Holt, late of the Black Ball Line
of packets, would always be welcome as a visitor at
the home, the captain being an old and tried friend
of her father's; but neither Bart's education nor
prospects, nor, for that matter, his social position--a
point which usually had very little weight with Jane
--could possibly entitle him to ask the hand of the