g6 The Real Charlotte, 



Mr. Hawkins slammed the lid of the coal bunker, and 

 stepped past his chief into the after-part of the launch. 



" I say, Miss Mullen," he began with scarcely suppressed 

 malignity, " Captain Cursiter says you won't see your niece 

 before to-morrow morning. You'll be sorry you wouldn't 

 let her come home in the launch after all." 



" If she hadn't been so late for her tea," retorted Miss 

 Mullen, " Mr. Lambert could have started half an hour 

 before he did." 



" Half an hour will be neither here nor there in this 

 game. What Lambert ought to have done was to have 

 started after luncheon, but I think I may remind you, Miss 

 Mullen, that you took him off to the holy well then." 



" Well, and if I did, I didn't leave my best pocket hand- 

 kerchief hanging in rags on the thorn bush, like some other 

 people I know of ! " Miss Mullen felt that she had scored, 

 and looked for sympathy to Pamela, who, having as was 

 usual with her, borne the heat and burden of the day in the 

 matter of packings and washings-up, was now sitting, pale 

 and tired, in the stern, with Dinah solidly implanted in her 

 lap, and Max huddled miserably on the seat beside her. 

 Miss Hope-Drummond, shrouded in silence and a long 

 plaid cloak, paid no attention to anyone or anything. 

 There are few who can drink the dregs of the cup of 

 pleasuring with any appearance of enjoyment, and Miss 

 Hope-Drummond was not one of them. The alteration 

 in the respective crews of the yacht and the steam-launch 

 had been made by no wish of hers, and it is probable that 

 but for the unexpected support that Cursiter had received 

 from Miss Mullen, his schemes for Mr. Hawkins' welfare 

 would not have prospered. The idea had indeed occurred 

 to Miss Hope-Drummond that the proprietor of the launch 

 had perhaps a personal motive in suggesting the exchange, 

 but when she found that Captain Cursiter was going to 

 stand with his back to her, and steer, she wished that she 

 had not yielded her place in the Daphne to a young person 

 whom she already thought of as " that Miss Fitzpatrick," 

 applying in its full force the demonstrative pronoun that 

 denotes feminine animosity more subtly and expressively 

 than is in the power of any adjective. Hawkins she felt 

 was out of her jurisdiction and unworthy of attention, and 



