"Mr. Gayne!" exclaimed Diana, electrified out of her customary serenity.
The man's restless, dark eyes glanced quickly from the face of one woman to another, even alighting upon Miss Emerson whose countenance only gave its usual indication that the lady had just detected a very unpleasant odor.
He laughed again, good-naturedly, and as he passed his nephew gave him a careless, friendly pat on the shoulder. The unexpected touch startled the boy and made him cringe.
"Bert believes honesty is the best policy," he said. "Don't you, Bert?"
"Yes, sir," replied the boy automatically.
"Sit down here a minute, won't you, Bertie?" asked Mrs. Lowell, making a place beside her on the piazza rail. The boy obeyed. "Have you ever seen this great ocean before?"
"No. Yes. I don't know."
"Why, yes, you do know, of course," said Mrs. Lowell, with a soft little laugh, very intimate and pleasant. "You know whether you have seen the ocean before."
The boy regarded her, and in the surprise of being really challenged to think, he meditated.
"No," he said, at last. "I've never been here before."