Certainly Denham Halloway must have possessed some secret charm in his management of children, for by the time Gerald turned her boat to the shore, he stood at the bank to meet them, with Olly by his side, as amiable a little fellow as any Sunday-school-book hero ever born.

“I am glad your sail turned out such a success, Miss Delano,” said Halloway, cheerily, as he lifted the little old lady carefully out on to the pebbles.  “You have been envied of us all.  But here is a little boy come to tell you all the same how sorry he is that he gave you such a fright.  Olly, my lad, I think Miss Delano looks as if she had forgiven you through and through.”

“Oh, indeed, indeed yes,” answered Miss Delano, hurriedly.  “It was only my silly way of being scared, particularly when I’m roused up so sudden out of one of those turns of mine.  And it’s all right, my dear, all right.”

“But I’m sorry, real and honest,” declared Olly, stoutly, looking squarely in Miss Delano’s kindly face.  “And I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“You meant it for a revenge on me, I suppose,” said Gerald, in a low, harsh voice.  She took hold of his arm as she spoke.  “Give me those marbles of yours.”

Olly looked at her, hesitated, and then reluctantly produced three very handsome agates from some outlying storehouse of his jacket.

“I bought you six,” said Gerald.  “Where are the rest?”

“I lost one,” answered Olly, sullenly.  “It fell down a hole.”

“Then give me the other two.”

Olly obeyed still more reluctantly, fixing great, anxious eyes upon his treasures as he laid them, each one more slowly than the last, in his sister’s hand.

“There,” said Gerald.  “Perhaps this will teach you to behave better another time.  I shall not buy you any more this summer.”  She flung out her hand suddenly, and the five pretty stones fell with a splash far out in the lake and disappeared forever, five little cruel sets of circles instantly beginning to widen and widen over their graves in a perfect mockery of roundness.  Olly gave one sharp cry, and then stood stock-still, a bitterly hard look coming over his face; those marbles had been very, very dear to his heart.  Halloway put his arm tenderly around the little fellow, and drew him close in a very sympathetic way.

“Olly,” he said, gently, “you know you deserved some punishment, but now that your sister has punished you, I am sure she will forgive you too, as Miss Delano has done, if you only ask her.”

Olly buried his face in his friend’s coat, and burst into a fit of heart-broken tears.  “I don’t want her to forgive me,” he sobbed.  “I only want my agates,—­my pretty, pretty agates!”

“Surely you will forgive him?” pleaded Halloway, looking up at Gerald over Olly’s head, and holding out one of the boy’s hands in his own.  “He was really penitent when you came up.  Let me ask for him.”

Gerald moved a step away, ignoring the hand.  “Certainly, if you wish it,” she said, coldly.