“P’r’aps he’ll turn up after all,” said Mr. Letts.  “Never say die.”

Mrs. Green shook her head.

“I s’pose,” said Mr. Letts, regarding her—­“I s’pose you don’t let lodgings for a night or two?” Mrs. Green shook her head again.

“It don’t matter,” said the young man.  “Only I would sooner stay with you than at a lodging-house.  I’ve taken a fancy to you.  I say, it would be a lark if you did, and I went there and your husband thought I was your son, wouldn’t it?”

Mrs. Green caught her breath, and sitting down again took his arm in her trembling fingers.

“Suppose,” she said, unsteadily—­“suppose you came round and pretended to be my son—­pretended to be my son, and stood up for me?”

Mr. Letts stared at her in amazement, and then began to laugh.

“Nobody would know,” continued the other, quickly.  “We only came to this place just before he sailed, and his sister was only ten at the time.  She wouldn’t remember.”

Mr. Letts said he couldn’t think of it, and sat staring, with an air of great determination, at the sea.  Arguments and entreaties left him unmoved, and he was just about to express his sorrow for her troubles and leave, when she gave a sudden start and put her arm through his.

“Here comes your sister!” she exclaimed.

Mr. Letts started in his turn.

“She has seen me holding your arm,” continued Mrs. Green, in a tense whisper.  “It’s the only way I can explain it.  Mind, your name is Jack Foster and hers is Betty.”

Mr. Letts gazed at her in consternation, and then, raising his eyes, regarded with much approval the girl who was approaching.  It seemed impossible that she could be Mrs. Green’s daughter, and in the excitement of the moment he nearly said so.

“Betty,” said Mrs. Green, in a voice to which nervousness had imparted almost the correct note—­“Betty, this is your brother Jack!”

Mr. Letts rose sheepishly, and then to his great amazement a pair of strong young arms were flung round his neck, and a pair of warm lips—­ after but slight trouble—­found his.  Then and there Mr. Letts’s mind was made up.

[Illustration:  “Then and there Mr. Letts’s mind was made up.]

“Oh, Jack!” said Miss Foster, and began to cry softly.

“Oh, Jack!” said Mrs. Green, and, moved by thoughts, perhaps, of what might have been, began to cry too.

“There, there!” said Mr. Letts.

He drew Miss Foster to the seat, and, sitting between them, sat with an arm round each.  There was nothing in sight but a sail or two in the far distance, and he allowed Miss Foster’s head to lie upon his shoulder undisturbed.  An only child, and an orphan, he felt for the first time the blessing of a sister’s love.

“Why didn’t you come home before?” murmured the girl.

Mr. Letts started and squinted reproachfully at the top of her hat.  Then he turned and looked at Mrs. Green in search of the required information.  “He was shipwrecked,” said Mrs. Green.