He gave her his hand, and gravely assisted her to the ground on the other side.

They were nearing the porch, and already the sounds of gay voices reached them through the stillness of the summer night, when Jean turned abruptly to the man at her side.

"By the way, Mr. Farr, we are to have a visitor shortly, and I hope you men will help us to make it pleasant for her."

He uttered some polite commonplace, and Jean went on:

"Perhaps you know Helen's friend, a Miss Stuart of New York."

A sudden recollection flashed through Farr's mind.

"Not one chance in a thousand that it should be the same," he thought, as he answered indifferently, "I think not."

"I thought possibly you might have met," she said carelessly. "She seems to know almost everyone."

He half turned to put a question to her, but already they were at the vine-covered porch, and Nan's jolly greeting lost him the opportunity. 88

88

CHAPTER VIII. NAN REBELS.

Into the days that followed were crowded more gay doings than the quiet village of Hetherford had ever seen before. Old Dr. Birdsall shook his head disapprovingly over all this unseemly frivolity, but Aunt Helen's gentle voice championed the young folks, and persuaded him to allow Nan to join in the good times. The naval officers were in constant demand whenever they were not on duty, and at the end of the week the other men came out from town, and their advent was the signal for a series of rides, drives, walks, tennis matches, and amusements of every description.

Emily pronounced herself perfectly satisfied, and when Nan and Mollie grumbled over a few of the changes that had followed in the train of all these merry-makings, she declared them heretics and disdainfully turned her back upon them.

It was after a day on the Vortex that Eleanor, Nan, and Mollie sat together in Eleanor's box of a room in the inn, and held a council of war.

They had had a beautiful sail. There was a "smoky sou'wester" blowing, and Uncle Sam's schooner, decked in holiday attire, had flown before the wind like a bird. Captain Dodd proved a genial, pleasant host, and Mrs. Dodd's heart had 

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