“Thank you. But if I had been?”

Again Miss Dinon looked toward the sea, and said,—

“I might perhaps have been more appreciative.”

“And to-day,” said Marge, gently taking the lady’s finger-tips,—“no, not to-day, but hereafter, is it impossible that I should honestly earn it?”

“Who knows,” said Agnes, gently, “but you?”

“Phil!” gasped Lucia, from the back of the old beach-wagon, “he is kissing her hand!”

“Umph!” said Phil: “what can that mean?”

Lucia looked at him soberly, and replied,—

“What a question for you, of all men, to ask!”

“Why, ’tis only an old-fashioned form of salutation or adieu,” said Phil, “I have your own word for it: don’t you remember?”