“Perhaps I shouldn’t, only that they seem a sort of necessary evil,” she retorted.  “But why don’t you invite some of us ladies to go along?”

“Because you are not necessary evils,” returned her brother, with a twinkle of fun in his eye.

“You should, one and all, have an invitation if we could make you comfortable,” said Harold, gallantly:  “but the vessel has absolutely no accommodations for ladies.”

“Ah, then, you are excusable,” returned Betty.

The young men left the next morning, after an early breakfast.  Zoe and Betty drove down to the wharf with them to see them off, and watched the departing vessel till she disappeared from sight.

Zoe went home in tears, Betty doing her best to console her.

“Come, now, be a brave little woman; it’s for only two or three days at the farthest.  Why, I’d never get married if I thought I shouldn’t be able to live so long without the fortunate man I bestowed my hand upon.”

“Oh, you don’t know anything about it, Betty!” sobbed Zoe.  “Ned’s all I have in the world, and it’s so lonesome without him!  And then, how do I know that he’ll ever get back?  A storm may come up and the vessel be wrecked.”

“That’s just possible,” said Betty, “and it’s great folly to make ourselves miserable over bare possibilities—­things which may never happen.”

“Oh, you are a great deal too wise for me!” said Zoe, in disgust.

“Oh,” cried Betty, “if it’s a pleasure and comfort to you to be miserable—­to make yourself so by anticipating the worst—­do so by all means.  I have heard of people who are never happy but when they are miserable.”

“But I am not one of that sort,” said Zoe, in an aggrieved tone.  “I am as happy as a lark when Ned is with me.  Yes, and I’ll show you that I can be cheerful even without him.”

She accordingly wiped her eyes, put on a smile, and began talking in a sprightly way about the beauty of the sea as they looked upon it, with its waves dancing and sparkling in the brilliant light of the morning sun.

“What shall we do to-day?” queried Betty.

“Take a drive,” said Zoe.

“Yes; I wish there was some new route or new place to go to.”

“There’s a pretty drive to the South Shore, that maybe you have not tried yet,” suggested the hackman.

“South Shore?  That’s another name for Surfside, isn’t it?” asked Betty.

“It’s another part of the same side of the island I refer to,” he answered.  “It’s a nice drive through the avenue of pines—­a road the lovers are fond of—­and if the south wind blows, as it does this morning, you have a fine surf to look at when you get there.”

“If a drive is talked of to-day, let us propose this one, Zoe,” said Betty.

“Yes; I dare say it is as pleasant as any we could take,” assented Zoe.  “I wish Edward was here to go with us.”

Elsie, with her usual thoughtfulness for others, had been considering what could be done to prevent Zoe from feeling lonely in Edward’s absence.  She saw the hack draw up at the door, and meeting the young girls on the threshold with a bright face and pleasant smile:  “You have seen the boys off?” she said, half inquiringly.  “The weather is so favorable, that I think they can hardly fail to enjoy themselves greatly.”