EDITH ROSE. A NIGHT SAIL. 157 



Frank, and every now and then gazed at him curiously. When 

 Frank mustered up courage to look back at her, he thought he 

 knew the face, and as the sermon advanced he recollected that 

 it was that of a friend of his sister Mary's, who had once stayed 

 at his father's house. When they left the church he went up 

 to her, and taking off his cap, said, 



" I beg your pardon, but are you not Miss Rose ? " 



" Yes, Mr. Merivale, but I thought you would not have re- 

 membered me. Papa, this is Mary Merivale's brother." 



Mr. Rose looked rather curiously at Frank and his friends, 

 and Frank at once answered the unspoken question by saying, 



' ; We are yachting, sir, and we are windbound, without any 

 change of clothes. We should have been ashamed to come 

 to church if we had thought we should meet anyone we knew/' 



u I am very glad to have met you. You and your friends 

 must come and dine with me," was Mr. Rose's reply. 



So, in spite of their slimy-covered clothes and fishy smell, 

 they were welcomed, and had a pleasant day. Edith Rose 

 was so very pretty and nice, that Frank began to think Dick 

 was not quite such a goose for being spoons on his sister, as he 

 had' previously thought him. 



_ About ten they returned to the yacht, and found that the 

 wind had risen, and was blowing tolerably hard. As they were 

 anxious to get back in time to be with Mr. Meredith on Monday 

 morning, they resolved to sit up until twelve o'clock and then 

 start homeward. The night was starlight, and light enough for 

 them to see their way on the water ; and as the hands on their 

 watches pointed to twelve they hoisted sail and glided away 

 through the grey stillness of the night, beneath the starlit blue 

 of the midnight sky, with no sound audible save the hissing of 

 the water curling against their bows, the flapping of the sails 

 as they tacked, and the occasional cry of a bird in the reeds ; 

 and about five o'clock they arrived home, and turned in on 

 board the yacht for a couple of hours' sleep before breakfast. 



