THE UNCLE OF AN ANGEL

By Thomas A. Janvier

Copyright, 1891, by Harper & Brothers

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I. 

When Mr. Hutchinson. Port, a single gentleman who admitted that he wasforty-seven years old and who actually was rising sixty, of stronglyfixed personal habits, and with the most positive opinions upon everyconceivable subject, came to know that by the death of his widowedsister he had been placed in the position of guardian of that sister'sonly daughter, Dorothy, his promptly formed and tersely expressedconception of the situation was that the agency by which it had beenbrought about was distinctively diabolical. The fact may be added thatduring the subsequent brief term of his guardianship Mr. Port found nomore reason for reversing this hastily formed opinion than did the lateKing David for reversing his hastily expressed views in regard to thegeneral tendency of mankind towards untruthfulness. 

The two redeeming features of Mr. Port's trying situation were that hisduties as a guardian did not begin at all until his very unnecessaryward was nearly nineteen years old; and did not begin actively--hisward having elected to remain in France for a season, under the milddirection of the elderly cousin who had been her mother's travellingcompanion--until she was almost twenty. When she was one-and-twenty, asMr. Port reflected with much satisfaction, he would be rid of her. 

Neither by nature nor by education had Mr. Hutchinson Port been fittedto discharge the duties which thus were thrust upon him. Hisdisposition was introspective--but less in a philosophical sense than aphysiological, for the central point of his introspection was hisliver. That he made something of a fetich of this organ will not appearsurprising when the fact is stated that Mr. Port was a Philadelphian. In that city of eminent good cheer livers are developed to a degree thatonly Strasburg can emulate. 

Naturally, Mr. Port's views of life were bounded, more or less, by whathe could eat with impunity; yet beyond this somewhat contracted regionhis thoughts strayed pleasantly afield into the far wider region of thethings which he could not eat with impunity; but which, with a trulySpartan epicureanism, he did eat--and bravely accepted the biliousconsequences! The slightly anxious, yet determined, expression thatwould appear upon Mr. Port's cleanshaven, ruddy countenance as hesettled himself to the discussion of an especially good and especiallydangerous dinner betrayed heroic possibilities in his nature which, being otherwise directed, would have won for him glory upon the martialfield. 

In minor matters--that is to say, in all relations of life notpertaining to eating--Mr. Port was very much what was to be expectedof him from his birth and from his environment. Every Sunday, with anexemplary piety, he sat solitary in the great square pew in St. Peter'swhich had been occupied by successive generations of Ports ever sincethe year 1761, when the existing church was completed. Every other dayof the week, from his late breakfast-time for some hours onward, he satat his own particular window of the Philadelphia Club and contemplateddisparagingly the outside world over the top of his magazine ornewspaper. At four, precisely, for his liver's sake, he rode in thePark; and for so stout a gentleman Mr. Port was an excellent horseman. 

[Illustration: Mr. Port was an excellent horseman 024]

On rare occasions he dined at his club. Usually, he dined out; for whilegenerally regarded as a very disagreeable person at dinners--because ofhis habit of finding fault with his food on the dual ground of hygieneand quality--he was in social demand because his presence at adinner was a sure indication that the giver of it had a good culinaryreputation; and in Philadelphia such a reputation is most highly prized. An irrelevant New York person, after meeting Mr. Port at several of theserious dinnerparties peculiar to Philadelphia, had described him as theanimated skeleton; and had supplemented this discourteous remark withthe still more discourteous observation that as a feature of a feast theEgyptian article was to be preferred--because it did not overeat itself, and did keep its mouth shut. However, Mr. Port's obvious rotunditydestroyed what little point was to be found in this meagre witticism;and, if it had not, the fact is well-known in Philadelphia that NewYorkers, being descended not from an honorable Quaker ancestry but fromsuccessful operations in Wall Street, are not to be held accountable fortheir unfortunate but unavoidable manifestations of a frivolity at onceinelegant and indecorous. 

In regard to his summers, Mr. Port--after a month spent for the good ofhis liver in taking the waters at the White Sulphur--of course went toNarragan-sett Pier. It may be accepted as an incontrovertible truth thata Philadelphian of a certain class who missed coming to the Pierfor August would refuse to believe, for that year at least, in thealternation of the four seasons; while an enforced absence from thatdamply delightful watering-place for two successive summers veryprobably would lead to a rejection of the entire Copernican system. 

II. 

"Poor dear mamma and I did not have a harsh word for years, UncleHutchinson, " Miss Lee explained, in the course of the somewhat animateddiscussion that arose in consequence of Mr. Port's declaration thata part of their summer would be passed, in accordance with his usualcustom, at the White Sulphur, and of Dorothy's declaration that she didnot want to go there. This, her first summer in America, was the thirdsummer after Mrs. Lee's translation; and since Dorothy had come intocolors again she naturally wanted to make the most of them. "No, nota single harsh word did we ever have. We always agreed perfectly, youknow; or if mamma thought differently at first she always ended byseeing that my view of the matter was the right one. The only seriousdifference that I remember since I was quite a little girl was thatlast autumn in Paris; when I had everything so perfectly arranged for adelightful winter in St. Petersburg, and when mamma was completely setin her own mind that we must go to the south of France. Her cough wasgetting very bad then, you know, and she said that a winter in Russiacertainly would kill her. I don't think it would have killed her, atleast not especially; but the doctor backed mamma up--and said somehorrid things to me in his polite French way--and declared that St. Petersburg was not even to be thought of. 

"And so, when I found that they were both against me that way, of courseI sacrificed my own feelings and told mamma that I would do just whatshe wanted. And mamma cried and kissed me, and said that I was an angel:wasn't it sweet of her? To be sure, though, she was having her own way, and I wasn't; and I think that I was an angel myself, for I did wantto go to Russia dreadfully. After all, as things turned out, we mightalmost as well have gone; for poor dear mamma, you know, died thatwinter anyway. But I'm glad I did what I could to please her, and thatshe called me an angel for doing it. Don't you think that I was one? Anddon't you feel, sir, that it is something of an honor to be an angel'suncle?

[Illustration: Suppose I kiss you right on your dear little bald spot030]

"Now suppose I kiss you right on your dear little bald spot, and thatwe make up our minds not to go to that horrid sulphur place at all. Everybody says that it is old-fashioned and stupid; and that is notthe kind of an American watering-place that I want to see, you know. It would have been all very well if we'd gone there while I was inmourning, and had to be proper and quiet and retired, and all that; butI'm not in mourning any longer, Uncle Hutchinson--and you haven't saidyet how you like this breakfast gown. Do you have to be told that whitelace over pale-blue silk is very becoming to your angel niece, UncleHutchinson? And now you shall have your kiss, and then the matter willbe settled. " With which words Miss Lee--a somewhat bewildering butunquestionably delightful effect in blond and blue--fluttered up to herelderly relative, embraced him with a graceful energy, and bestowed uponhis bald spot the promised kiss. 

"But--but indeed, my dear, " responded Mr. Port, when he had emerged fromMiss Lee's enfolding arms, "you know that going to the White Sulphur isnot a mere matter of pleasure with me; it is one of hygienicnecessity. You forget, Dorothy"--Mr. Port spoke with a most earnestseriousness--"you forget my liver. "

"Now, Uncle Hutchinson, what is the use of talking about your liverthat way? Haven't you told me a great many times already that it is anhereditary liver, and that nothing you can do to it ever will make it goright? And if it is bound to go wrong anyway, why can't you just try toforget all about it and have as pleasant a time as possible? That'sthe doctrine that I always preached to poor dear mamma--she had anhereditary liver too, you know--and it's a very good one. 

"Anyhow, I've heard mamma say countless times that Saratoga was awonderfully good place for livers; now why can't we go there? Mammaalways said that Saratoga was simply delightful--horse-racing going onall the time, and lovely drives, and rowing on the lake, and dancing allnight long, and all sorts of lovely things. Let's go to Saratoga, UncleHutchinson! Mamma said that the food there was delicious--and you knowyou always are grumbling about the food those sulphur people give you. 

"But what really would be best of all for you, Uncle Hutchinson, " MissLee continued, with increasing animation, "is Carlsbad. Yes, that's whatyou really want--and while you are drinking the horrid waters I can behaving a nice time, you know. Then, when you have finished your course, we can take a run into Switzerland; and after that, in the autumn, we might go over to Vienna--you will be delighted with the Viennarestaurants, and they do have such good white wines there. And then, from Vienna, we really can go on and have a winter in Russia. Justthink how perfectly delightful it will be to drive about in sledges, allwrapped up in furs"--Mr. Port shuddered; he detested cold weather--"andto go to the court balls, and even, perhaps, to be present the next timethey assassinate the Czar! Oh, what a good time we are going to have! Dowrite at once, this very day, Uncle Hutchinson, to Carlsbad and engageour rooms. "

To a person of Mr. Port's staid, deliberate temperament this rapidoutlining of a year of foreign travel, and this prompt assumption thatthe outline was to be immediately filled in and made a reality, wasupsetting. His mental processes were of the Philadelphia sort, and whenMiss Lee had completed the sketch of her European project he still wasengaged in consideration of her argument in favor of throwing over theWhite Sulphur for Saratoga. However, he had comprehended enough of herlarger plan to perceive that by accepting Saratoga promptly he might bespared the necessity of combating a far more serious assault upon hispeace of mind and digestion. Travel of any sort was loathsome to Mr. Port, for it involved much hasty and inconsiderate eating. 

"Very well, " he said, but not cheerfully, for this was the first timein a great many years that he had not made and acted upon plansshaped wholly in his own interest, "we will try Saratoga, since you soespecially desire it; but if the waters affect my liver unfavorably weshall go to the White Sulphur at once. "

"What! We are not to go to Carlsbad, then? Oh, Uncle Hutchinson, I hadset my heart upon it! Don't, now don't be in a hurry to say positivelythat we won't go. Think how much good the waters will do you, and thinkof what a lovely time you can have when your course is over, and you caneat just as much as you want of anything!"

But even by this blissful prospect Mr. Port was not to be lured; andDorothy, who combined a good deal of the wisdom of the serpent withher presumable innocence of the dove, perceived that it was the part ofprudence not further to press for larger victory. 

"And from Saratoga, of course, we shall go to the Pier, " said Mr. Port, but with a certain aggressiveness of tone that gave to his assertion theair of a proposition in support of which argument might be required. 

"To Narragansett, you mean? Oh, certainly. From what several people havetold me about Narragansett I think that it must be quite entertaining, and I want to see it. And of course, Uncle Hutchinson, even if I didn'tcare about it at all, I should go all the same; for I want to fall inexactly with your plans and put you to as little trouble as possible, you know. For if your angel wasn't willing to be self-sacrificing, shereally wouldn't be an angel at all. "

Pleasing though this statement of Early Christian sentiment was, it struck Mr. Port--as he subsequently revolved it slowly in hisslowly-moving mind--as lacking a little on the side of practicality;for Miss Lee, so far, unquestionably had contrived to upset with a fineequanimity every one of his plans that was not absolutely identical withher own. 

III. 

On the whole, the Saratoga expedition was not a success. Even on thejourney, coming up by the limited train, Miss Lee was not favorablyimpressed by the appearance of her fellow-passengers. Nearly all ofthe men in the car (most of whom immediately betook themselves to thebar-room, euphoniously styled a buffet, at the head of the train) wereof a type that would have suggested to one accustomed to American lifethat variety of it which is found seated in the high places of thegovernment of the city of New York; and the aggressively dressed and tooabundantly jewelled female companions of these men, heavily built, heavy browed, with faces marked in hard lines, and with aggressiveeyes schooled to look out upon the world with a necessarily emphaticself-assertion, were of a type that, without special knowledge ofAmerican ways, was entirely recognizable. Albeit Miss Lee, having spentmuch time in the mixed society of various European watering-places, wasnot by any means an unsophisticated young person, and was not at all asqueamish one, she was sensibly relieved by finding that the chairnext to hers was occupied by a silvery-haired old lady of the mostunquestionable respectability; and her composure was further restored, presently, by the return to his chair, on the other side of her of Mr. Port: who had betaken himself to what the conductor had told him was thesmoking-room, and who, finding himself in a bar-room, surrounded by athrong of hard-drinking, foul-mouthed men, had sacrificed hismuch-loved cigar in order to free himself from such distinctly offensivesurroundings. 

At their hotel, and elsewhere, Miss Lee and her uncle encountered manyof their fellow-passengers by the limited train, together with others ofa like sort which previous trains had brought thither; and while, on thewhole, these were about balanced by a more desirable class of visitors, they were in such force as to give to the life of the place a verypositive tone. 

At the end of a week Dorothy avowed herself disappointed. "I never didthink much of poor dear mamma's taste, you know, Uncle Hutchinson, " shesaid, with her customary frankness, "and what she found to like in thisplace I'm sure I can't imagine. It's tawdry and it's vulgar; and as forits morals, I think that it's worse than Monte Carlo. I suppose thatthere is a nice side to it, for I do see a few nice people; but, somehow, they all seem to stand off from each other as though they wereafraid here to take any chances at all with strangers. And I don't blamethem, Uncle Hutchinson, for I feel just that way myself. What you oughtto have done was to have hired a cottage, and then people would havetaken the trouble to find out about us; and when they'd found that wewere not all sorts of horrid things we should have got into the rightset, and no doubt, at least if we'd stayed here through August, weshould have had a very nice time. 

"But we're not having a nice time, here at this noisy hotel, UncleHutchinson, where the band can't keep quiet for half an hour at a time, and where the only notion that people seem to have of amusement is tooverdress themselves and wear diamonds to dinner and sit in crowds onthe verandas and dance at night with any stranger who can get anotherstranger to introduce him and to drive over on fine afternoons to thatplace by the lake and drink mixed drinks until some of them actually gettipsy. I really think that it all is positively horrid. And so I'm quitewilling now to go to the White Sulphur. It is stupid, I know, but I'vealways heard that it is intensely respectable. I will get my packing alldone this afternoon, and we will start to-morrow morning; and I thinkthat you'd better go and telegraph for rooms right away. "

But to Dorothy's surprise, and also to her chagrin, Mr. Port refused toentertain her proposition. He fully agreed with her in her derogatoryestimate of Saratoga life as found at Saratoga hotels; and he cherishedalso a private grief incident to his (mistaken) belief that the cookingwas not so good as he remembered it, bright in the glamour of his sounddigestion in his youthful past. On the other hand, however, the waterscertainly were having a most salutary effect upon his liver; and themove to Virginia would involve spending two days of hot weather intoilsome travel, sustained only by such food as railway restaurantsafford. Therefore Mr. Port declared decidedly that until the end of Julythey would remain where they were--and so gave his niece the doubtfulpleasure of an entirely new experience by compelling her to do somethingthat she did not want to do at all. It was a comfort to Mr. Port, inlater years, to remember that he had got ahead of Dorothy once, anyhow. 

Being a very charming young person, Miss Lee could not, of course, begrumpy; yet grumpiness certainly would have been the proper word withwhich to describe her mood during her last fortnight at Saratoga had shenot possessed such extraordinarily fine gray eyes and such an admirablydimpled chin. The fact must be admitted that she contrived to make heruncle's life so much of a burden to him that his staying powers werestrained to the utmost Indeed, he admitted to himself that he could nothave held out against such tactics for another week; and he perceivedthat he had done injustice to his departed sister in thinking--as hecertainly had thought, and even had expressed on more than one occasionin writing--that in permitting her European movements to be shaped inaccordance with her daughter's fancies she had exhibited an inexcusableweakness. 

It was a relief to Mr. Port's mind, and also to his digestion--forDorothy's grumpiness produced an effect distinctly bilious--when the endof July arrived and his own and his charming ward's views once more werebrought into harmony by the move to Narragansett Pier. Fortunately, while somewhat disposed to stand upon her own rights, Miss Lee was nota person who bore malice; a pleasing fact that became manifest on themoment that she began to pack her trunks. 

"I am afraid, Uncle Hutchinson, " she observed, on the morning that thisimportant step towards departure was taken--"I am afraid that during thepast week or so your angel may not have been quite as much of an angelas usual. "

"No, " replied Mr. Port, with a colloquial disregard of grammaticalconstruction, and with perhaps unnecessary emphasis, "I don't think shehas. "

"But from this moment onward, " Dorothy continued, courteously ignoringher uncle's not too courteous interpolation, and airily relegating intooblivion the recent past, "she expects to manifest her angelic qualitiesto an extent that will make her appear unfit for earth. Very possiblyshe may even grow a pair of wings and fly quite away from you, sir--right up among the clouds, where the other angels are! And howwould you like that, Uncle Hutchinson?"

In the sincere seclusion of his inner consciousness Mr. Port admittedthe thought that if Dorothy had resolved herself into an angelic_vol-au-vent_ (a simile that came naturally to his mind) at any timeduring the preceding fortnight he probably would have accepted thesituation with a commendable equanimity. But what he actually said wasthat her departure in this aerated fashion would make him profoundlymiserable. Mr. Port was a little astonished at himself when he wasdelivered of this gallant speech; for gallant speeches, as he very wellknew, were not at all in his line. 

On the amicable basis thus established, Miss Lee and her guardianresumed their travels; and, excepting only Mr. Port's personal miseryincident to the alimentary exigencies of railway transportation, theirjourney from the central region of New York to the seaboard of RhodeIsland was accomplished without misadventure. 

IV. 

In regard to Narragansett Pier, Miss Lee's opinions, the which she wasneither slow in forming nor unduly cautious in expressing, at first wereunfavorable. 

"And so _this_ is 'the Pier, ' is it?" she observed in a tone by no meansexpressive of approval as she stood on the hotel veranda on the dayof her arrival, and contemplated the rather limited prospect that wasbounded at one end by the Casino and at the other by the coal-elevator. "If those smelly little stones out there are 'the Rocks' that peopletalk about at such a rate I must confess that I am disappointed inthem"--Mr. Port hastened to assure her that the Rocks were in quite adifferent direction--"and if that is the Casino, while it seems a nicesort of a place, I really think that they might have managed the arch soas not to have that horrid green house showing under it. And what littlepoor affairs the hotels are! Really, Uncle Hutchinson, I don't see whatthere is in this little place to make such a fuss about. "

"Dorothy, " replied Mr. Port, with much solemnity, "you evidentlyforget--though I certainly have mentioned the fact to yourepeatedly--that the climate of this portion of Rhode Island is the mostdistinctively antibilious climate to be found upon the whole coast ofNorth America. For persons possessing delicate livers--"

"Oh, bother delicate livers--at least, I beg your pardon, UncleHutchinson, " for an expression of such positive pain had come into Mr. Port's face at this irreverent reference to an organ that he regarded assacred that even Dorothy was forced to make some sort of an apology. "Ofcourse I don't want to bother your poor liver more than it is botheredanyway; but, you know, I haven't got a liver, and I don't care forclimates a bit. What I mean is: what do people do here to have a goodtime?"

"In the morning, " replied Mr. Port, "they bathe, and in the afternoonthey drive to the Point. This morning we shall bathe, Dorothy--bathingis an admirable liver tonic--and this afternoon we shall drive to thePoint. "

"Good heavens! Is that all?" exclaimed Miss Lee. "Why, it's worse thanSaratoga. Do you mean to say, Uncle Hutchinson, that people don't dancehere, and don't go yachting, and don't have lunch-parties, and don'tplay tennis, and don't even have afternoon teas?"

"I believe that some of these things are done here, " replied Mr. Port, in a tone that implied that such frivolities were quite beyond the linesof his own personal interests. "Yes, " he continued, "I am sure thatall of them are done here now--for the Pier is not what it used to be, Dorothy. The quiet air of intense respectability that characterizedNarragansett when it was the resort only of a few of the best familiesof Philadelphia has departed from it--I fear forever! But, thank Heaven, its climatic characteristics remain intact. When you are older, Dorothy, and your liver asserts itself, you will appreciate this incomparableclimate at its proper value. "

"Well, it hasn't asserted itself yet, you know; and I must say I'mdevoutly thankful that something has happened to wake up the quiet andintensely respectable Philadelphians before I had to come here. But I'mvery glad, dear Uncle Hutchinson, " Miss Lee continued, winningly, "thatthis climate is so good for you, and I'm sure I hope that you won't havea single bilious attack all the time that you are here. And you'll takeyour angel to the dances, and to see the tennis, and you'll give herlunch-parties, and you'll take her yachting, won't you, you dear? But Iknow you will; and if this were not such a very conspicuous place, and might make a scandal, I'd give you a very sweet kiss to pay youin advance for all the trouble that you are going to take to makeyour angel enjoy herself. You needn't bother about the teas, UncleHutchinson--for the most part they're only women, and stupid. "

Being still somewhat cast down by painful memories of that trying finalfortnight in Saratoga, during which he and his niece had pulled sostrongly in opposite directions, Mr. Port heard with a lively alarm thisdeclaration of a plan of campaign which, if carried out, would wreckhopelessly his own comfort of body and peace of mind. Obviously, thiswas no time for faltering. If the catastrophe was to be averted, he mustspeak out at once and with a decisive energy. 

"I need not tell you, Dorothy, " he began, speaking in a most grave andearnest tone, "that it is my desire to discharge in the amplest andkindest manner my duties towards you as a guardian--"

"I'm sure of it, and of course you needn't tell me, you dearestdear--and we might begin with just a little lunch to-day. The breakfastwas horrid, and I didn't get half enough even of what there was. "

"But I must say now, " Mr. Port went on--keenly regretting theunfortunate beginning that he had given to his declaration ofindependence, but judiciously ignoring Dorothy's shrewd perversion ofit--"that your several suggestions literally are impossibilities. Iadmit that dancing for a short period, at about an hour after each meal, is an admirable exercise that produces a most salutary effect upon thedigestive apparatus; but persistent dancing until an unduly late periodof the night is a practice as unhygienic as, in the mixed company of awatering-place, it is socially objectionable. 

"Tennis is an absurdity worthy of the vacuous minds of those who engagein it. . To suggest that I shall sit in a cramped position in a draughtygallery for several hours at a stretch in order to watch empty-headedyoung men playing a perverted form of battledoor and shuttlecock acrossa net, is to imply that they and I are upon the same intellectual level;and this, I trust, is not the case. 

"As you certainly should remember, Dorothy, all persons of a bilioushabit suffer severely from seasickness; a fact that, of course, disposeseffectually of your yachting plans. For you are not desirous, I amsure, of purchasing your own selfish enjoyment--if you possibly can haveenjoyment on board a yacht--at the cost of my intense personal misery. 

"But in regard to the lunches, my dear"--Mr. Port's tone softenedperceptibly--"there certainly is something to be said. The food hereat the hotel, I admit, is atrocious, and at the Casino it is possibleoccasionally to procure something eatable. Yes, I shall have muchpleasure in giving a lunch this very morning to my angel" (Mr. Port, warming in advance under the genial influence of the croquette and saladthat he intended to order, became playful), "for what you said in regardto the breakfast, Dorothy, was quite true--it was abominable. If youwill excuse me, I will just step down to the Casino now and give myorder; then things will be all ready for us when we get back from thebath. "

And such was Miss Lee's generalship that she rested content with hersuccess in one direction, and deferred until a more convenient seasonher further demands. She was a reasonable young woman, and was quitesatisfied with accomplishing one thing at a time. 

V. 

Two or three days later Dorothy advanced her second parallel. In theinterval they had bathed every morning and had driven to the Point everyafternoon, and they had held converse upon the veranda of the hotelevery evening until ten o'clock with certain eminently respectablepeople from Philadelphia, by whom Dorothy was bored, as she did nothesitate to confess, almost to desperation. Further, Mr. Port had givena lunch-party to which these same Philadelphians were invited; and hisniece had informed him, when the festivity was at an end, that if he didanything like that again she certainly would either run away or drownherself. Any trials in this world or any dangers in the next, shedeclared, were preferable to sitting opposite to such a person as Mrs. Logan Rittenhouse, who talked nothing but uninteresting scandal andcrochet, and next to Mr. Pennington Brown, who talked only aboutpeoples' great-grandfathers and great-aunts. 

It was with a lively alarm that Mr. Port noted these signs ofdiscontent, together with returning symptoms of the grumpiness whichhad disturbed his comfort and digestion at Saratoga; and it was mostselfishly in his own self-interest that he tried to think of somethingthat would afford his niece amusement. Miss Lee, when she perceived thather intelligently laid plans were working successfully, was graciouslypleased to assist him. 

"It is a great pity, Uncle Hutchinson, " she vouchsafed to remark on thefourth day of suppressed domestic sunshine, "that you don't like tennis. Don't you think, for your angel's sake, that you could go for just alittle while this afternoon? There's going to be a capital match thisafternoon, and your angel does so want to see it. You haven't beenvery--very agreeable the past two or three days, you dear, and I fearthat your liver must be a little out of order. Really, you haven't givenyour angel a single chance to be affectionate--and unless she can beaffectionate and sweet and clinging, and things like that, you know, your poor angel is not happy at all. Suppose we try the tennis for justhalf an hour or so? It won't be much of a sacrifice for you, and it willmake your angel so happy that she will make herself dearer to you thanever, you precious thing. "

This form of address was disconcerting to Mr. Port, for during theperiod to which Miss Lee referred he certainly had been trying--not verycleverly, perhaps, for such efforts were not at all in his line, butstill to the best of his ability--to make himself as agreeable aspossible; and the effort on the part of his niece to be angelic, ofwhich she spoke so confidently, he could not but think had fallen rathermore than a little short of absolute success. The one ray of comfortthat he extracted from Dorothy's utterance was her reference to herselfas his angel; he had come to understand that the use of this term wasa sign of fair weather, and he valued it accordingly. But even for thesake of fair weather Mr. Port was not yet prepared to expose his elderlyjoints to the draughty discomforts of the galleries overhanging thetennis-court; and he said so, pretty decidedly. Almost anything else hewas willing to do, he added, but that particular thing he would not doat all. 

"As you please, Uncle Hutchinson, " Dorothy answered, in a tone of gloomyresignation. "I am used to hearing that. It is just what poor dear mammaused to say. She always was willing, you know, to do everything butthe thing that I wanted her to do. I remember, just to mention a singleinstance, how mamma broke up a delightful water party on Windermere thatSir Gordon Graham had arranged expressly for us. The weather was rathermisty, as it is apt to be up there, you know, but nothing worth mindingwhen you are well wrapped up. But mamma said that if she went out insuch a drizzle she knew her cough would be ever so much worse--and ofcourse she couldn't really know that it would be worse, for nobody trulyknows what the weather is going to do to them--and so she wouldn'tgo. And Sir Gordon was very much hurt about it, and never came nearus again. And unless I'm very much mistaken, Uncle Hutchinson, mamma'sselfishness that day lost me the chance of being Lady Graham. So I'mused to being treated in this way, and you needn't at all mind refusingme everything that I ask. " And, being delivered of this discourse, MissLee lapsed into a condition of funereal gloom. 

At the end of another twenty-four hours Mr. Port knuckled under. "Ihave been thinking, Dorothy, " he said, "about what you were saying abouttennis. It's a beastly game, but since you insist upon seeing it I'lltake you for a little while this afternoon. " This was not the mostgracious form of words in which an invitation could be couched; butDorothy, who was not a stickler for forms provided she was successful inresults, accepted it with alacrity. Later in the day, as they returnedfrom the Casino, she declared:

"Your angel has had a lovely afternoon, Uncle Hutchinson, and she issure that you have had a lovely afternoon too. And now that you've foundwhat fun there is in looking at tennis, we'll go every day, won't we, dear? Sometimes, you know, you are just a little, just a very littleprejudiced about things; but you are so good and sweet-tempered thatyour prejudices never last long, and so your angel cannot help lovingyou a great deal. "

Mr. Port, who was not at all sweet-tempered at that moment, was preparedto reply to the first half of this speech in terms of some emphasis;for he was limping a little, and a shocking twinge took him in hisleft shoulder when he attempted to raise his arm. But Dorothy's suddenshifting to polite personalities was of a nature to choke off hisprojected indignant utterance. Yet not feeling by any means preparedto meet in kind her pleasing manifestation of affection, Mr. Port was alittle put to it to find any suitable form of response. After a moment'sreflection he abandoned the attempt to reply coherently, and contentedhimself with grunting. 

VI. 

Encouraged by the success that was attending her unselfish efforts toharmonize her own and her uncle's conceptions of the temporal fitnessof things, Miss Lee began to find life at the Pier quite supportable. "There's not much to do here, " she declared, with her customary candor, "and the hotels--all ugly and all in a row--make it look like anovergrown charitable institution; and most of the people, I must say, are such a dismal lot that they might very well be the patients out foran airing. But, on the whole, I've been in several worse places, UncleHutchinson; and if only you'd take me to a hop now and then, instead ofsitting every evening on the pokey hotel veranda talking Philadelphiatwaddle with that stuffy old Mr. Pennington Brown, I might have rather agood time here. "

"You will oblige me, Dorothy, " replied Mr. Port, "by refraining fromusing such a word as 'stuffy' in connection with a gentleman whobelongs to one of the oldest and best families in Philadelphia, and who, moreover, is one of my most esteemed friends. "

"But he _is_ stuffy, Uncle Hutchinson. He never talks about anything butwho peoples' grandfathers and grandmothers were; and _Watson's Annals_seems to be the only book that he ever has heard of. Indeed, I do trulythink that he is the very stuffiest and stupidest old gentleman that Iever have known. "

Mr. Port made no reply to this sally, for his feelings were such that hedeemed it best not to give expression to them in words; but he was notunnaturally surprised, after such a declaration of sentiments onthe part of his niece, when she begged to be excused on the ensuingafternoon from her regular drive to the Point, on the ground that shehad promised to make an expedition to the Rocks in Mr. Brown's company. Had an opportunity been given him Mr. Port would have asked for anexplanation of this phenomenon; but the carriage was in waiting thatwas to convey his ward and her extraordinary companion to the end of theroad at Indian Rock--a slight rheumatic tendency, that he declared washereditary, rendering it advisable for Mr. Brown to reduce the use ofhis legs to a minimum--and before Mr. Port could rally his forces theyhad entered it and had driven away. 

[Illustration: They had entered it and had driven away 050]

In the evening Mr. Port found another surprise awaiting him. Miss Leepresently retired from the veranda for the avowed purpose of searchingfor a missing fan, thus leaving the two gentlemen together. 

[Illustration: What a charming girl your niece is 054]

"What a charming girl your niece is, Port!" said Mr. Brown, as thefluttering train of Dorothy's dress disappeared through the door-way. 

Mr. Port evidently considered that this possibly debatable statement wassufficiently answered by a grunt, for that was all the answer he gaveit. 

Not permitting his enthusiasm to be checked by this chillingly dubiousresponse, Mr. Brown continued:

"She certainly is one of the most charming girls I have met in a longtime, Port. She is not a bit like the average of young girls nowadays. I rarely have known a young person of either sex to be so genuinelyinterested in genealogy, especially in Philadelphia genealogy; andI must say that her liking for antiquarian matters generally is veryremarkable. I envy you, I really envy you, old boy, the blessing of thatsweet young creature's constant companionship. "

"Umph--do you?" was Mr. Port's concise and rather discouraging reply. 

"Indeed I do"--Mr. Brown was too warm to notice the cynical tone of hisfriend's rejoinder--"and I have been thinking, Port, that we are a pairof selfish old wretches to monopolize every evening in the way that wehave been doing this bright young flower. It is a shame for us to keepher in our stupid company--though she tells me that she finds our talkabout old people and old times exceedingly interesting--instead ofletting her have a little of the young society and a little of theexcitement and pleasure of watering-place life. Now, how would it dofor us to take her down to the Casino to-night? There is to be a hopto-night, she says; at least, that is to say"--Mr. Brown became somewhatconfused--"I heard somewhere that there is to be a hop tonight, andwhile that sort of thing is pretty stupid for you and me, it isn't a bitstupid for a young and pretty girl like her. So suppose we take her, oldman?"

As this amazing proposition was advanced by his elderly friend, Mr. Port's anger and astonishment were aroused together; and his ruderejoinder to it was: "Have you gone crazy, Brown, or has Dorothy beenmaking a fool of you? Has she asked you to ask me to take her to theCasino hop? She knows there is no use in talking to me about it anylonger. "

"No, certainly not--at least--that is to say--well, no, not exactly, "replied Mr. Brown, beginning his sentence with an asperity andpositiveness that somehow did not hold out to its end. "She did say tome, I confess, how fond she was of dancing, and how she had refrainedfrom saying much about it to you"--Mr. Port here interpolated asceptical snort--"because she knew that taking her to the Casino wouldonly bore you. And I do think, Port, that keeping her here with us allthe time is grossly selfish; and if you don't want to take her to thehop I hope you'll let her go with me. But what we'd better do, old man, is to take her together--then we can talk to each other just as well, at least nearly as well, as we can here, and we can have the comfort ofknowing that she is enjoying herself too. Come, Hutch; we're getting oldand rusty, you and I, but let us try at least to keep from degeneratinginto a pair of selfish old brutes with no care for anybody's comfort butour own. "

Mr. Hutchinson Port might have replied with a fair amount of truth thatso far as he himself was concerned the degeneration that his friendreferred to as desirable to avoid already had taken place. But all of uslike most to be credited with the virtues of which we have least, and hetherefore accepted as his due Mr. Brown's tribute of implied praise. And the upshot of the matter was that Dorothy, when she returned to theveranda again, was unaffectedly surprised (and considering how carefullyshe had planned her small campaign she did it very creditably) bydiscovering that her uncle's edict against the Casino hops had beenwithdrawn. 

VII. 

Even Dorothy was disposed to believe that unless some peculiarlyfavorable combination of circumstances presented itself as a basis forher intelligent manipulation her strong desire for a yacht voyage mustremain ungratified; for, now that his liver was decidedly the largerpart of him, Mr. Port had a fairly catlike dread of the sea. To be sure, Dorothy's character was a resolute one, and her staying powers werequite remarkable; but in the matter of venturing his bilious body uponthe ocean she discovered that her uncle--although now reduced to afairly satisfactory state of submission in other respects--had a largeand powerful will of his own. 

Fortune, however, favors the resolute even more decidedly than shefavors the brave. This fact Dorothy comprehended thoroughly, anduniformly acted upon. Each time that even a remote possibility of ayacht cruise presented itself she instantly brought her batteriesto bear; and, with a nice understanding of her uncle's intellectualpeculiarities, she each time treated the matter as though it neverbefore had been discussed. 

Therefore it was that when Miss Lee's eyes were gladdened one day--justas she and her uncle were about to begin their lunch on the shadyveranda of the Casino--by the sight of a trim schooner yacht slidingdown the wind from the direction of Newport, the subject of the cruisewas revived with a suddenness and point that Mr. Port found highlydisconcerting. The yacht rounded to off the Casino, and the sound of aplunge and a clanking chain floated across the water as her anchor wentoverboard. 

[Illustration: The yacht rounded to off the Casino 060]

"Oh, isn't she a beauty!" exclaimed Dorothy, with enthusiasm. "Now, Uncle Hutchinson, her owner is coming ashore--they have just broughtthe gig round to the gangway--and if you don't know him you must getsomebody to introduce you to him; and then you must introduce him to me;and then he will ask us to go on a cruise; and of course we will go, and have just the loveliest time in the world. I haven't been on boarda yacht for nearly five years (just look at the gig: don't the men pullsplendidly?)--not since that nice little Lord Alderhone took poor dearmamma and me up to Norway. We did have such a good time! Poor dearmamma, of course, was desperately sick--she always was horriblysea-sick, you know; but I'm never sea-sick the least bit, and it wasperfectly delightful. Look, Uncle Hutchinson, they've made the dock, andnow he's coming right up here. What a handsome man he is, and how wellhe looks in his club uniform! It seems to me I've seen him somewhere. Doyou know him, Uncle Hutchinson?"

A serious difficulty under which Mr. Port labored in his dealings withhis niece was his inability--due to his Philadelphia habit of mind--tokeep up with the exceptionally rapid flow of her ideas. On the presentoccasion, while he still was engaged in consideration of the irrationalproposition that he should court the desperate misery that attends abilious man at sea by as good as asking to be taken on a yacht voyage, he suddenly found his ideas twisted off into another direction by thereference to his sister's sufferings on a similar occasion in the past;and before he could frame in words the reproof that he was disposedto administer to Dorothy for what he probably would have styled herheartlessness, he found his thoughts shunted to yet another track by adirect question. It is within the bounds of possibility that MissLee had arrived at a just estimate of her relative's intellectualpeculiarities, and that she even sometimes framed her discourses with aview to taking advantage of them. 

The direct question being the simplest section of Dorothy's complexutterance, Mr. Port abandoned his intended remonstrance and reproof andproceeded to answer it. "Yes, " he said, "I know him. It's Van RensselaerLivingstone. His cousin, Van Ruy-ter Livingstone, married your cousinGrace--Grace Winthrop, you know. He's a great scamp--this one, I mean;gambles, and that sort of thing, I'm told, and drinks, and--and variousthings. I shall have to speak to him if he sees me, I suppose; but ofcourse I shall not introduce him to you. "

"Mr. Van Rensselaer Livingstone! Why so it is! How perfectly delightful!I know him very well, Uncle Hutchinson. He was in Nice the last winterwe were there; and he broke the bank at Monaco; and he played thatperfectly absurd trick on little Prince Sporetti: cut off his littleblack mustache when Prince Sporetti was--was not exactly sober, youknow, and gummed on a great red mustache instead of it; and then, beforethe prince was quite himself again, took him to Lady Orrasby's ball. AllNice was in a perfect roar over it. And they had a duel afterwards, andMr. Livingstone--he is a wonderful shot--instead of hurting the littleprince, just shot away the tip of his left ear as nicely as possible. Oh, he is a delightful man--and here he comes. " And Dorothy, half risingfrom her chair, and paying no more attention to Mr. Port's kicks underthe table than she did to his smothered verbal remonstrances, extendedher well-shaped white hand in the most cordial manner, and in the mostcordial tone exclaimed:

"Won't you speak to me in English, Mr. Livingstone? We talked French, I think it was, the last time we met. And how is your friend PrinceSporetti? Has his ear grown out again? You know my uncle, I think?Mr. Hutchinson Port. "

Livingstone took the proffered hand with even more cordiality than itwas given, and then extended his own to Mr. Port--who seemed much lessinclined to shake it than to bite it. 

"I think that we are justified in regarding ourselves as relations now, Miss Lee, since our cousins have married each other, you know. Quite aromance, wasn't it? And how very jolly it is to meet you here--when Ithought that you certainly were in Switzerland or Norway, or even overin that new place that people are going to in Roumania! I flatter myselfthat I always have rather a knack of falling on my feet, but, by Jove, I'm doing it more than usual this morning!"

Miss Lee seemed to be entirely unaware of the fact that her uncle waslooking like an animated thunder-cloud. "It is just like a bit out ofa delightful novel, " was her encouraging response. "A long, low, blackschooner suddenly coming in from the seaward and anchoring close offshore, and the hero landing in a little boat just in time to slay thevillain and rescue the beautiful bride. Of course I'm the beautifulbride, but my uncle is not a villain, but the very best ofguardians--by-the-way, I don't think that you know that poor dear mammais dead, Mr. Livingstone? Yes, she died only a week or two after youleft us. So you see you must be very nice to the villain--and you canbegin your kind treatment of him by having lunch with him and with metoo. Uncle Hutchinson was _so_ pleased when he saw you come ashore. Hesaid that we certainly must capture you, and he sent a man to bring somehot soup for you at once--here it is now. " And so it was, for Dorothyherself very thoughtfully had given the order that she now modestlyattributed to her uncle. 

And so in less than ten minutes from the moment when Mr. Port hadinformed Dorothy that Van Rensselaer Livingstone was a veryobjectionable person whom he desired to avoid, and whose introduction toher was not even to be thought of, they all three were lunching togetherin what to the casual observer seemed to be the most amicable mannerpossible. 

VIII. 

"I've run over to look up Mrs. Rattleton, " said Livingstone, as hediscussed with evident relish the _filet_ that Mr. Port charitably hopedwould choke him. "Very likely you haven't met her, for she's only justgot here. But you'll like her, I know, for she's ever so jolly. She'spromised to play propriety for me in a party that we want to make upaboard the yacht. The squadron won't get down from New York for a weekyet, and I've come up ahead of it so that we can have a cruise to theShoals and back before the races. Of course, Miss Lee, you won't fly inthe face of Fate, after this providential meeting, by refusing to joinour party; at least if you do you will make me wretched to the end of mydays. And we will try to make you comfortable on board, sir, " he added, politely, turning to Mr. Port. "I have a tolerably fair cook, and iceisn't the only thing in the ice-chest, I assure you. "

"How very kind you are, Mr. Livingstone, " Dorothy hastened to say, inorder to head off her uncle's inevitable refusal. "Of course we will go, with the greatest possible pleasure. It is very odd how things fall outsometimes. Now only this morning I was begging Uncle Hutchinson to takeme off yachting, and he was saying how much he enjoyed being at sea, andhow he really thought that if it wasn't for his age--wasn't it absurdof him to talk about his age? He is not old at all, the dear!--he wouldhave a yacht of his own. And almost before the words are fairly out ofour mouths here you drop from the clouds, or are cast up by the sea, it's all the same thing, and give us both just what we have been longingfor. At least, Uncle Hutchinson pretended to be longing for it only incase he could be young enough to enjoy it; but if he doesn't think he'syoung now, I'd like to know what he'll call himself when he's fifty!"And then, facing around sharply upon her uncle, Dorothy concluded: "Theidea of pretending that _you_ are too old to go yachting! Really, UncleHutchinson, I am ashamed of you!"

As has been intimated, if there was any one subject upon which Mr. Portwas especially sensitive, it was the subject of his age. As the parishregister of St. Peter's all too plainly proved, he never would see sixtyagain; but this awkward record was in an out-of-the-way place, andthe agreeable fiction that he advanced in various indirect ways to theeffect that he was a trifle turned of forty-seven was not likely to beofficially contradicted. And it is not impossible, so tenacious was heupon this point, that had the official proof been produced, he wouldhave denied its authenticity. For it was Mr. Port's firm determinationstill to figure before the world as a youngish, middle-aged man. 

To say that Miss Lee deliberately set herself to playing upon thisweakness of her guardian's, possibly, remotely possibly, would bedoing her injustice. But the fact is obvious that she succeeded byher cleverly turned discourse in landing her esteemed relative fairlybetween the horns of an exceedingly awkward dilemma: either Mr. Portmust accept the invitation and be horribly ill, or he must reject it, and so throw over his pretensions to elderly youth. 

For a moment the unhappy gentleman hung in the wind, and Dorothyregretted that she had not made her statement of the case stillstronger. Indeed, she was about to supplement it by a remark to theeffect that people never thought of giving up yachting until they wereturned of sixty, when, to her relief, her uncle slowly filled away onthe right tack. His acceptance was expressed in highly ungracious terms;but, as has been said, Dorothy never troubled herself about forms, provided she compassed results. The moment that he had uttered the fatalwords, Mr. Port fell to cursing himself in his own mind for being sucha fool; but the same reason that had impelled him to give his consentwithheld him from retracting it. He knew that he was going to bedesperately miserable; but, at least, nobody could say that he was old. 

"I'm ever so much obliged to you, Miss Lee, and to you too, Mr. Port, "said Livingstone. "And now, if you'll excuse me, I'll go and hunt upMrs. Rattle-ton, and tell her what a splendid raise I've made, and helpher organize the rest of the party. We shall have only two more. It's abore to have more than six people on board a yacht. I don't know why itis, I'm sure, but if you have more than six they always get to fighting. Queer, isn't it?"

"I beg your pardon, " said Mr. Port. "Mrs. Rattleton? May I ask if thisis the Mrs. Rattleton from New York who was here last season, the onewhose bathing costume was so--so very eccentric, and about whom therewas so much very disagreeable talk?"

"Mrs. Rattleton _is_ from New York, and she _was_ here last season, "Livingstone answered. "But I can't say that I remember anythingeccentric in her bathing costume, except that it was exceedinglybecoming; and I certainly never heard any disagreeable talk about her. There may have been such talk about her, but perhaps it was thought justas well not to have it in my presence. Mrs. Rattleton is my cousin, Mr. Port--she was a Van Twiller, you know. Do you happen to remember anyof the things that were said about her, and who said them?" Livingstonespoke with extreme courtesy; but there was something in his tone thatcaused Mr. Port suddenly to think of the tip of Prince Sporetti's leftear, and that led him to reply hurriedly, and by no means lucidly:

"Certainly--no--yes--that is to say, I can't exactly remember anythingin particular. I'm sure I was led to believe from what was said that shewas a very charming woman. No, I don't remember at all. "

"Ah, perhaps it is just as well, " Livingstone replied, gravely. "But howlucky!" he added; "there she is now. Everybody is at the Casino aboutthis time of day, I fancy. May I bring her over and present her to you, Miss Lee?"

"Of course you may, Mr. Livingstone. I shall be delighted to meet her. And if she is to matronize me, the sooner that I begin to get accustomedto her severities the better. "

And then Mr. Hutchinson Port suffered a fresh pang of misery when thepresentation was accomplished and he was forced to say approximatelypleasant things to a lady whose decidedly ballet-like attire in thesurf--or, to be precise, on the beach above high-water-mark, where, for some occult reason, she usually saw fit to do the most of herbathing--joined to the exceeding celerity of her conduct generally, hadmarked her during the preceding season as the conspicuous centre of onephase of life at the Pier. Nor was Mr. Port's lot made happier ashe listened to the brisk discussion that ensued in regard to theorganization of the yachting party, and found that its two remainingmembers were to be drawn, as was only natural, from the eminentlymeteoric set to which Mrs. Rattleton belonged. 

Had time been given Mr. Port for consideration it is probable that hewould have collected his mental forces sufficiently to have enabled himto lodge a remonstrance; he might even--though this is doubtful, forDorothy's voting power was vigorous--have accomplished a veto. Butprojects in which Mrs. Rattleton was concerned never went slowly; andin the present case the necessity for getting back in time for theraces really compelled haste. And so it came to pass that not untilthe _Fleetwings_ was off the Brenton's Reef light-ship, with her nosepointed well up into the north-east, was there framed in Mr. Port'sslow-moving mind a suitable line of argument upon which to base aperemptory refusal to go upon the expedition--and by that time he was soexcruciatingly ill in his own cabin that coherent utterance and conversewith his kind were alike impossible. 

So far as Mr. Port was concerned the ensuing six days made up anepoch in his life that can only be described as an agonized blank. Andwhen--as it seemed to him many ages later--the _Fleetwings_ once morecast anchor off Narragansett Pier, and he stepped shakily from theschooner's gig to the Casino dock, the usual plumpness and ruddiness ofhis face had given place to a yellow leanness, and his weight had beenreduced by very nearly twenty pounds. The cruise had been a flying one, or he never would have finished it. After the first six hours he wouldhave landed on a desert island cheerfully--and it is not impossible thata hint from Dorothy as to her uncle's probable movements should a harborbe made had induced Livingstone to give the land a wide berth. 

Dorothy came ashore blooming. "You don't know, Uncle Hutchinson, "she said, "what a perfectly lovely time I've had"--and this cheerfulassertion was the literal truth, for Mr. Port had entered his cabinbefore the yacht had crossed the line between Beaver Tail and PointJudith, and had not emerged from it until the anchor went overboard. "And you don't know, " Miss Lee went on with effusion, "how grateful yourangel is to you for helping her to have such a delightful cruise. I'msorry that you haven't been very well, Uncle Hutchinson; but I knowthat you will be all the better for it. Poor dear mamma, you know, wasbilious too, and going to sea always made her wretched; but she used tobe wonderfully well always when she got on shore again. And you'll bewonderfully well too, you dear; and that will be your reward for helpingyour angel to have such a perfectly delightful time. "

Mr. Port made no reply to this address, for his condition of collapsewas too complete to permit him to give form in words to the thoughtsof rage and resentment which were burning in the depths of his injuredsoul. Without a word to one single member of the party, he climbedheavily into a carriage and was driven directly to his hotel--whileDorothy, still under the chaperonage of Mrs. Rattleton, gayly joinedthe pleasant little lunch-party at the Casino with which the yachtvoyage came to an end. 

IX. 

During the ensuing week, a considerable portion of which Mr. Port passedin the privacy of his own room, the relations between Miss Lee and herguardian were characterized by a chill formality that was ominous ofa coming storm. In point of fact, Mr. Port was waiting only untilhe should fully regain his strength in order to try conclusions withDorothy once and for all--and he was most highly resolved that in theimpending battle royal he should not suffer defeat. So far, he had gonedown in each encounter with his spirited antagonist because the tacticsemployed against him were of an unfamiliar sort. But he was beginning toget the hang of these tactics now; and he also had got what in fightingparlance would have been styled his second wind. As he thought of thewrongs which had been heaped upon him, rage filled his breast; and thestrong determination slowly shaped itself within him that to the finesseof the enemy he would oppose a solid front of brute force. 

Astuteness was not the least marked of Miss Lee's many charmingcharacteristics, and although her guardian gave no outward sign of hisbelligerent intentions, she felt an inward conviction that a decisivetrial of strength between them was at hand. Five or six years earliershe had engaged in a trial of this nature with her mother, and hademerged from it victorious. In that case, feminine weakness had yieldedto feminine strength. But now the gloomy thought assailed her that heruncle, while closely resembling her mother in the matter of his liver, had in the depths of his torpid nature a substratum of brutal masculineresolution against which, should it fairly be set in array, she mightbattle in vain. And the upshot of her meditations was the convictionthat her only chance of success lay in avoiding a battle by a radicalchange of base. 

An easy way, as she perceived, to effect such a change of base was tomarry Van Rensselaer Livingstone. Indeed, his proposal, a couple of daysafter the yacht voyage ended, came so opportunely that she almostwas surprised into accepting it out of hand. But Dorothy was too wellbalanced a young person to do anything hastily, even to get herselfout of a tight place; and while she held Livingstone's proposal underadvisement--as a line of retreat kept open for use in case of urgentnecessity--she welcomed it less for the possibilities of a saferposition that it offered than for those which it suggested to herfertile mind. 

Marriage, she decided, was the only way by which she could score a finalvictory over her uncle, and at the same time spike his guns; but itdid not necessarily follow that her marriage must be with Livingstone. Indeed, as her coolly intelligent mind perceived, marrying anunmanageable young man in order to be free of an unmanageable old onewould be simply walking out of the frying-pan into the fire--and thatwas not at all the resolution of her difficulties that Dorothy sought. The plan that now began to shape itself in her mind was one by whichboth fire and frying-pan would be successfully avoided; and as the morethat she examined into it the more desirable it appeared to her, shelost no time in carrying it into effect--whereby, in less than threedays' time, she sent Mr. Van Rensselaer Livingstone away in such a ragethat he put to sea in the very face of a threatening north-easter, andin a much shorter period she caused her uncle seriously to doubt theevidence of his own senses. 

At the end of his week of retirement, Mr. Port found himself in thehale condition of a bilious giant refreshed with blue-pills. He looked alittle thinner than when he had started upon his ill-starred cruise, andhis usual ruddiness was not as yet fully restored; but he was in capitalcondition, and a good deal more than ready for Miss Lee to come on. He could not very well, in the nature of the case, start an offensivecampaign; but at the very first suggestion on Dorothy's part ofthe slightest desire to engage again in any of the various forms offrivolous amusement by which she had made his life a burden to him, hewas all loaded and primed to go off with a bang that he believed wouldsettle her. 

And, such is the perversity of human nature, Mr. Port presently becamenot a little annoyed by Dorothy's failure to supply the spark that wasto touch him off. In fact, her conduct was bewilderingly strange. She drew away from the lively circle of which Mrs. Rattleton was theanimated centre and voluntarily associated herself with the elderly andvery respectable Philadelphians whoso acquaintance she previously hadso emphatically declined. Still further to Mr. Port's astonishment, thelady and gentleman especially singled out by Miss Lee as most in accordwith her newly-acquired tastes were the severe Mrs. Logan Rittenhouseand that lady's staid brother, Mr. Pennington Brown. 

[Illustration: The severe Mrs. Logan Rittenhouse 074]

At the feet of the former, quite literally, she sat as a disciple incrochet; and listened the while with every outward sign of interest tothe dull record of South Fourth Street scandals of the past and WestWalnut Street scandals of the present which this estimable matronpoured into her ears by the hour at a time. And in a quiet corner of theveranda (Mr. Brown's eyesight having failed a little, so that he foundreading rather difficult) she read aloud to the latter from _Watson'sAnnals_; and listened with a pleased satisfaction to his comments uponher selections from this, the Philadelphia Bible, and to the numerousanecdotes of a genealogical and antiquarian cast which thus wererecalled to his mind. Possibly the readings from _Watson_ were continuedin the afternoons--when Miss Lee and Mr. Brown regularly went down tothe Rocks. So extraordinary was all this that Mr. Port admitted franklyto himself that he could make neither head nor tail of it; but he had aninborn conviction that such an unnatural state of affairs was not likelyto last There was good Scriptural authority, he called to mind grimly, for the assertion that the leopard did not change his spots nor theEthiopian his skin. 

X. 

In accordance with the substantial customs of his fellow-citizens, Mr. Port always returned to Philadelphia sharp on the 1st ofSeptember--calmly ignoring the heat and the mosquitoes, which are thedominant characteristics of Philadelphia during that month, and restingsecure in the knowledge that the course which he pursued was that whichhis father and his grandfather had pursued before him. It was on theeve of his departure from Narragansett that his doubts and perplexitiesoccasioned by Dorothy's surprising conduct were resolved. 

Being seated in a snug corner of the veranda in company with Mr. Pennington Brown, Mr. Port was smoking a comforting cigar. Mr. Brown, who also was smoking, did not seem to find his cigar comforting. Hesmoked it in so fitful a fashion that it repeatedly went out; andhis nervousness seemed to be increased each time that he lighted it. Further, his comment upon Mr. Port's discourse--which was a more thanordinarily thoughtful and accurate weighing of the relative merits ofthin and thick soups--obviously were delivered quite at random. Atfirst Mr. Port was disposed to resent this inattention to his soulfulutterances; but as the subject was one in which, as he well knew, hisfriend was profoundly interested, he presently became uneasy. 

"What's the matter, Brown?" he asked, in a tone of kindly concern. "Isyour rheumatism bothering you? I've been afraid that your absurd sittingaround on rocks with my niece would bring it on again. You're not asyoung as you once were, Pen, and you've got to take care of yourself. "

"I am not aware, Port, " Mr. Brown answered rather stiffly, "that I am asyet conspicuously superannuated. Indeed, I never felt younger in my lifethan I have felt during the past fortnight. I _have_ a little touchof rheumatism to-night, " he added, frankly, and at the same time gaveunintentional emphasis to his admission by catching his breath andalmost groaning as he slightly moved his legs, "but it has nothing to dowith sitting on the rocks with Dor--with your charming niece. You forgetthat my rheumatism is hereditary, Port. Why, I had an attack of it whenI was only five-and-twenty. "

"All the same, you wouldn't have it now if you had spent your afternoonssensibly with me here on a dry veranda, or properly wrapped up in a drycarriage, instead of on damp rocks, with that baggage. What on earth hasgot into you I can't imagine. If you were twenty years younger, Brown, Ishould think, yes, positively, I should think that you were in love withher. "

"Port, " said Mr. Brown, with a tone of resentment in his voice, "I shallbe very much obliged if you will not use such language when you arespeaking of Miss Lee. She is the best and kindest and noblest woman Iever have met. You have most cruelly misunderstood her. Had you givenher half a chance she would have been to you only a source of constantjoy. "

Mr. Port replied to this emphatic assertion by a low, but most pointedlyincredulous, whistle. 

"You have not the slightest conception, as such a comment shows, " Mr. Brown continued, with increasing asperity, "of the depths of sweetnessand tenderness which are in her nature; of her perfect unselfishness;of the gentleness and trustfulness of her heart. She is all that a womancan be, and more. She is--she is an angel!" Mr. Brown's elderly voicetrembled as he made this avowal. 

As for Mr. Port, his astonishment was almost too deep for words. But hemanaged to say: "Yes, I suppose she is--at least she has said so oftenenough herself. "

For some seconds there was silence; and then, with a deprecating mannerand in a voice from which all trace of resentment had disappeared, Mr. Brown resumed: "Hutch, old man, you and I have been friends these manyyears together, and you won't fail me in your friendship now, willyou? You are right, I _am_ in love with this sweet young creature, andshe--think of it, Hutch!--she has admitted that she is in love with me;not romantically in love, for that would be, not absurd, of course, but a little unreasonable--for while I'm not at all old, yet I know, of course, that I am not exactly what can be called young--but in lovesensibly and rationally. She wants to take care of me, she says, thedear child!" (Mr. Port grunted. ) "And she has such clever notions inregard to my health. When we are married--how strange and how delightfulit sounds, Hutch!--she says that we will go immediately to Carlsbad, where the waters will do my rheumatism a world of good; and from there, when I am better, we will go on to Vienna, where the dry climate and thewhite wines, she thinks, still further will benefit me; and from Vienna, in order to set me on my feet completely, we are to go on to the Northand spend a winter in Russia--for there is nothing that cures rheumatismso quickly and so thoroughly, she says (though I never should haveimagined it) as steady and long-continued cold. Just think of herplanning it all out for me so well!

"Yes, Hutch, I love her with all my heart; and what has made me sonervous to-night is the great happiness that has come to me--it onlycame positively this afternoon--and the dread that perhaps, as herguardian, you know, you might not approve of what we have decided todo. But you do approve, don't you, Hutch? Of course, in a few months shewill be her own mistress, and your consent to our marriage, as shevery truly says, then will be unnecessary. But even a month seems adesperately long while to wait; and that is the very shortest time, she thinks, in which she could get ready--though the dear child hasconsented to wait for most of the little things which she wants until weget on the other side. " Mr. Port smiled cynically at the announcement ofthis concession. It struck him that when Dorothy was turned loose amongthe Paris shops, backed by the capacious purse of a doting elderlyhusband, she would mow a rather startlingly broad swath. "So you won'toppose our marriage, will you, old man? You will consent to my havingthis dear young creature for my wife?"

Various emotions found place in Mr. Port's breast as he listened to thisextraordinary declaration and appeal. At first he felt a lively angerat Dorothy for having, as he coarsely phrased it in his own mind, so successfully gammoned Mr. Pennington Brown; to this succeeded aninvoluntary admiration of the clever way in which she had managed it;and then a feeling of profound satisfaction possessed him as there cameinto his slow-moving mind a realizing sense of his own deliverance. But Mr. Port was not so utterly selfish but that, in the midst of thesunrise of happiness which dawned upon him with the opening of a way bywhich he decently could get rid of Dorothy, he was assailed by certainqualms of conscience as to the unfairness of thus casting upon his oldfriend the burden that he had found so hard to bear. For the heavinessof Mr. Port's mental processes prevented him from perceiving, as ashrewder person would have perceived, that Dorothy was not the sortof young woman to engage in an enterprise of this nature without firstfully counting the cost. Had he been keener of penetration he would haveknown that she could be trusted, when safely landed in the high estateof matrimony, to play on skilfully the game that she had so skilfullybegun; that in her own interest she would manage matters in such away as never to arouse in the mind of her elderly husband the awkwardsuspicion that the scheme of life arranged by his angel apparentlywith a view solely to his own comfort really was arranged only for thecomfort of her angelic self. 

It was while Mr. Port wavered among his qualms of conscience, hesitatingbetween his great longing to chuck Dorothy overboard, and so havedone with her, and his sense of duty to Mr. Pennington Brown, that thesubject of his perplexities herself appeared upon the scene; andher arrival at so critical a juncture seemed to suggest as a remotepossibility that she had been all the while snuffing this particularbattle from not very far off. 

"Dear Uncle Hutchinson, " said Miss Lee, with affectionate fervor, "do you think that your angel is most cruel and horrid because she iswilling to go off in this way after her own selfish happiness and leaveyou all alone? But she won't do it, dear, if you would rather have herstay. Her only wish, you know, has been to make you comfortable andhappy; and you have been so good and so kind to her that she is ready tosacrifice even her love for your sake. Yes, if you would rather keepher to yourself she will stay. Only if she does stay, " and there was awarning tone of deep meaning in Miss Lee's well-modulated voice, "herheart, of course, will be broken, and she will have to ask you to travel"with her for two or three years into out-of-the-way parts of the world(Mr. Port shuddered) "until her poor broken heart gets well. Not thatit ever will get quite well again, you know; but she will be brave, andtry to pretend for your sake that it has. So it shall be just as yousay, dear; only for Pennington's sake, who loves me so much, UncleHutchinson, I hope that perhaps you may be willing to let me go. "

And having concluded this moving address, Miss Lee extended one of herwell-shaped hands to Mr. Pennington Brown--who grasped it warmly, forhe was deeply moved by so edifying an exhibition of affectionate anddutiful unselfishness--and with the other applied her handkerchiefdelicately to her eyes. 

Mr. Port was not in the least moved by Dorothy's professions ofself-sacrifice; but he was most seriously alarmed by her threat--thatopened before him a dismal vista of bilious misery--to cart him forseveral years about the world on the pretext of a broken heart thatrequired travel for its mending. 

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He believed, to be sure, that in a stand-up fight he could conquerDorothy; but he had his doubts as to how long she would stayconquered--and between constant fighting and constant travel there isnot much choice; for Mr. Port knew from experience how acute isthat form of biliousness which results from rage. After all, self-preservation is the first law of nature; and under the stress thusput upon him, therefore, it is not surprising that Mr. Port's qualmsof conscience incident to his failure to do his duty to his neighborvanished to the winds. 

Mr. Pennington Brown still held Dorothy's hand in his own. "Will youmake this great sacrifice, Hutch, for your old friend?" he asked. 

Mr. Port hesitated a little, for he felt a good deal like a criminal whois shifting his crime upon an innocent man; and then he answered, ratherweakly both in tones and terms: "Why, of course. "

"Dear Uncle Hutchinson, how good you are!" exclaimed Miss Lee. "And youreally think that you can spare your angel, then?"

And both promptly and firmly Mr. Port answered: "Yes, I really thinkthat I can. "