A steward seemed to be on the look-out for the party, and addressed Uncle Dick the moment he alighted from the cab.

“Mr. Gordon, sir?  Yes, sir.  Madam Bellethorne has received your wire and is waiting for you.  I have arranged for you all to be passed through the inspection line.  The steamship, sir, is delayed and will not sail until next tide.”

“And that is a mighty good thing for us,” declared Mr. Gordon to his charges.

His business card helped get them past the inspectors.  It is not easy to board a ship nowadays to bid good-bye to a sailing friend.  But in ten minutes or so they stood before the great singer.

She was a tall and handsome woman.  Betty at first glance saw that Ida, the niece, would very likely grow into a very close resemblance to Madam Bellethorne.

The woman looked swiftly from Betty to Ida and made no mistake in her identification of her brother’s daughter.  Ida was crying just a little, but when she realized how close and kindly was her aunt’s embrace she shook the drops out of her eyes and smiled.

“Father wanted I should find you, Aunt Ida,” she said.  “He wrote a letter to you and I have it.  I think it was the principal thing he thought of during his last illness—­his misunderstanding with you.”

“My fault as much as his,” Madam Bellethorne said sadly.  “We were both proud and high-tempered.  But no more of this now.  Something in this gentleman’s long telegram to me——­”

She bowed to Mr. Gordon.  He quickly stated the matter of the black mare’s ownership to the singer.

“If you will come to the British consulate where Ida’s passport must be vised, and sign there a paper empowering me to act in your behalf, you assuming the guardianship of Ida, I can start lawyers on the trail of this swindle.”

Miss Bellethorne was a woman of prompt decision and of a business mind, and immediately agreed.  She likewise saw that her niece had made powerful friends during the weeks she had been in America and she was content to allow Mr. Gordon to do the girl this kindness.

It was a busy time; but the delay in the sailing of the San Salvador made it possible for everything necessary to be accomplished.  Uncle Dick and Betty and Bob accompanied the Bellethornes aboard the ship again and had luncheon with them.  Ida cried when she parted with Betty; but it would be only for the winter.  When the opera company returned to New York it was already planned that the younger Ida Bellethorne should join the friends of her own age she had so recently made at Shadyside School.

It was an astonishing sight for Betty and Bob to see the great ship worried out of her dock by the fussy little tugs.  It was growing dark by that time and the great steamship was brilliantly lighted.  They watched until she was in midstream and was headed down the harbor under her own steam.

“There!  It’s over!” sighed Betty.  “I feel as if a great load had been lifted from my mind.  Dear me, Bob! do you suppose we can ever again have so much excitement crowded into a few hours?”