The Port of Adventure

-deck of the Adriatic and felt peacefully co

-toward Europe. On either side of her chair were several which were unoccupied, and a soothing silence hovered

l, and had taken a step which meant high nervous tension leading up to a supreme decision.

when you were not; and since it wasn't permissible to cover human beings up like canaries when you had tired of them, or send them away like children when they had prattled enough, Angela cuddled down among her cushions and rugs, glad to be let alone for the first time in her life. But there wa

rown that it was like gold under the mourning hat she wore. Her low black collar made the slender throat that rose out of it white as a lily. The oval of her face was perfect, and when she

th, there was something of pride and distinction about her which made it seem that she could not be an ordinary sort of person you had never

of their cabins. Apparently she hasn't even brought a maid-yet what lovely clothes she has, though so simple, and al

ess di Sereno she would be more stared at and bothered than that poor, fat Duchess of Dorsetshire, who was too near-sighted to recognize her at a distance, thank goodness. Each glance thrown her way would have been an annoyance, f

e match, of course: girl just out of school-the wedding wasn't six weeks after she was presented in England. The prince met her there, has English relations, like most of the Roman nobility. But the interesting part of the story is this: they never lived together as husband and wife. The bride either found out some secret the prince had kept from her (which is what people believe), or else there was a mysterious row the first hour after the wedding. Anyhow, something happened; he went off the sa

had never felt any pride or pleasure in being a princess, and after the flatteries and disillusions, the miseries and foolish extravagances of the last hateful, brilliant six years, everything connected with them, and the historic title her dead father's money had bought, was being eagerly obliterated by Franklin Merriam's daughter. She knew little about her forebears on her father's side, except that they were English, whereas Paolo had cent

her mother's choice. Therefore she was just superstitious enough to feel that "May" might bring happiness, since her father's memory was the single u

s. Merriam's intimate enemies put it), Angela had kept the girls laughing. Now, though she had imagined her gay spirit dead with childhood, she began to be visited by its ghost. She amused herself on shipboard with a thousand things, and a thousand thoughts which made her feel the best of "chums" with her new friend and c

though many illusions had broken like bright bubbles, this ideal still glittered before Angela's eyes. She had been promised by her father that she should visit California with him, when "Mother brought her back from Europe"; but he had died, and mother ha

the rooms must be kept cool by the roof of a veranda, shading the windows like a great overhanging eyelid. Lovely flowers she would have, of course, but the garden must be as unli

her in the end. At last he had been glad to let her go out of his life, for she had made arrangements by which he kept more than half her money. There was no danger that he would try to snatch her

thers, though had it not been for the cause of her mourning, probably she would not now be on her way to America. It was a few weeks after Mrs. Merriam's death, when she had recovered from the shock which was hardly sorrow, that Angela said to herself: "Now she is beyond being grieved by anything I do,

ept her belongings in order. When she travelled, as she often did, one or both went with her; to Egypt; to Algeria; to Russia; to Paris; or to England.

t hug her loneliness and her secret. She hardly knew what to do as she stood under the big letter "M" waiting to have her luggage examined. Her fellow "M's" as well as all the other letters a

r with the air of a hunted child who had got lost and hardly hoped ever to be found; so the protective instincts were aroused, and the wind was tempered to the shorn lamb. In half an hou

New York was almost as strange to her as if she had never seen it before. Indeed, she had seen little of it, for the Merriams had lived in Boston, and Angela was only eleven when she bade her father and America good-bye. How v

g through the bright, busy streets, in the vivifying sunshine,

future, and I'm drivin

icab stopped before the ever-revolving glass wheel of the Fifth Avenue door. The building towered to a

und herself in a large hall with floor and walls of marble. Formally cut laurel-trees g

e of a dozen clerks that she was Mrs. A.V. May

ngela pulled off her glove and took the pen, she laid down a gold chain-bag which she always carried hanging on her arm. Angela was used to it, and she had no idea that it might be considered ostentatious in trav

for her rings and a small, plain brooch, she had no jewellery which was meant to show. Under the black

own Mrs. May, so she provided herself with it, and then, moving her arm abruptly, her gold bag fell on the floor. Naturally, a man who had been leaning on the counter, looking at Ange

ropped this, l

his tall, oddly clad fellow, from under the dapper gentleman's rather sharp nose. Of course, she did not laugh, but smiled gratefully instead, and she could not help staring a litt

xtraordinary-looking man. But how handsome! He might be dressed for a play-only

as so tall that he made most of those standing near look insi

ght, she saw that it was attractive, and the eyes splendid, even compelling, so

e, untamed creature of the forest, changed by enchantment into a man and thrust into modern clothes. Yet the look he gave her was not uncivilized, only surprised,

ial which did not seem to be starched, and a low collar was turned down over a black, loosely tied cravat like a sailor's. Instead of a waistcoat he wore a leather belt, of the sort in which one would quite e

ine bronze statue out of place, in the wrong surroundings, she wondered from what sort of niche the statue had transplante

tured accent to which Angela was accustomed. Besides, it was quaint to be addressed as "lady." London cabbies and beggars called one

nt voice, saying "Pleased to do any service for you, lady." A few minutes later, however, she forgot the incident of the dropped bag in admiring her pretty suite of white and green rooms, the bath, and the cedar-lined wardrobes in the wall, which she remembered as typically American. She felt like a child examining a new playhouse. Suddenly she was sure that she would get on well with Americans, that she would like them, and they her, though until to-day she had been afraid that her country-people, in their own land, would seem to her like strangers. Although she had not made up her mind how long she would stay in New York before going West, she unpa

came near her was miserable. At all times, too, she had quick sympathies, and could read the secrets of sad or happy eyes in a flash, as she passed them in the street, though less sensitive persons saw nothing noteworthy; and often she longed to hurry back to some stranger, as if a voice had cried after her which she could not let cry in vai

she said. "'Twill be a rale pleasure-

ou're homesick. I think you must have come not lo

"And I'm homesick enough to die, but not so much

ck for a place you never set eyes on?

ng, she laid it on a chair, to search wildly for her handkerchief. "Do excuse me, if ye can, miss," she choked. "I've no right to make a fool o' meself in front of you, but you're

that, though I've lived in Europe most of my lif

that map by

was going to say, though Oregon's ever so far West, the man you came from Ir

nd by, I'm a

n how she might make the course of true love run smooth;

it-and was doin' wonderful. The idea was he should meet me at the ship, and we'd get married and go West, man and wife. But his partner cheated him out of his eyes, and the trick only come out

" said Angela impulsively. "Do you think you could le

too happy here. The housekeeper's got a 'clow' on me. And indade, I've done a bit of

know, if you're going to be my maid, you must

ecause ye look so young, it never entered me hea

r her husband, to whom she must have been married when almost a child. "My name's Kate McGinnis, ma'am," she went quickly on, "and though

journey. But if you go, you mustn't expect to get out to Oregon immediately. I mean to travel to California, and I

t, but he will be soon-now the worry about payin' the big price of me railwa

optimism to-day was ready to triumph over past stumbling-

el, and I was lookin' out for a private place. Me time's up here day after to-morrow. But, oh, ma'am, there's a thing I haven't told ye-indade, '

Irish girl. "I don't believe you can have anything to tell

" Kate paused, swallowing

out laughing. "How can

ver part with the crature till Tim and me was made wan, and I niver have. Neither will I, if I have to starve. But I pay fur his kape in the hotel, out o' me wages, as

o preposterous things, and enjoy doing them. "I like you for your loyalty," she said, "and I shall like Timmy

ng you some, ma'am," said Kate.

call you by your first name. Kate, as if you wer

rty, and to my mind there's none with more music in it. Oh, if ye only knew how happy ye've made me! I was afraid me nam

ll alone in the world," she said to hers

narily intelligent and companionable, she thought. Then, most of the afternoon she spent in poring over maps, planning what she called her "pilgrimage"; and a little before six s

nd her. Instantly his whole aspect changed. The statue came to life. His listless expression brightened to the puzzling intentness with which he had looked at her in the morning. As she passed near him, on her way to the travel bureau, he got up and stood like a soldier at attention. Seeing this Angela went by q

h they had probably cost a good deal, and they were astonishingly like advertisements of men's clothes which Angela had seen in American magazines on shipboard. They did their best to give him his money's worth, by spoiling his splendid looks and turning him into something different from what nature had intended. His broad shoulders were increased in size by the padded cutaway coat, until they seemed out of proportion. His collar was an inch too high, and he was evidently wretched in it. Also he had the look in his eyes of a man whose boots are so tig

or himself as I am for him. Who knows, though? Perhaps I'm mist

she alone, was the cause of the tragic change. He had wished to appea