Some way, Margie felt strangely at ease on the subject.  She knew that the arrangements were all made, that her wedding trousseau was being gotten up by a fashionable modiste, that Delmonico had received orders for the feast, and that the oranges were budded, which, when burst into flowers, were to adorn her forehead on her bridal day.  She despised Linmere with her whole soul, she dreaded him inexpressibly, yet she scarcely gave her approaching marriage with him a single thought.  She wondered that she did not; when she thought of it all, she was shocked to find herself so impassive.

Her party had been a week at Cape May, when Archer Trevlyn came down, with the wife of his employer, Mr. Belgrade.  The lady was in delicate health, and had been advised to try sea air and surf-bathing.  Mr. Belgrade’s business would not allow of his absence at just that time, and he had shown his confidence in his head clerk by selecting him as his wife’s escort.

Introduced into society by so well established an aristocrat as Mrs. Belgrade, Arch might at once have taken a prominent place among the fashionables; for his singularly handsome face and highbred manners made him an acquisition to any company.  But he never forgot that he had been a street-sweeper, and he would not submit to be patronized by the very people who had once, perhaps, grudged him the pennies they had thrown to him as they would have thrown bread to a starving dog.  So he avoided society, and attended only on Mrs. Belgrade.  But from Alexandrine Lee he could not escape.  She fastened upon him at once.  She had a habit of singling out gentlemen, and giving them the distinction of her attentions, and no one thought of noticing it now.  Arch was ill at ease beneath the infliction, but he was a thorough gentleman, and could not repulse her rudely.

A few days after the arrival of Mrs. Belgrade, Arch took her down to the beach to bathe.  The beach was alive with the gorgeous grotesque figures of the bathers.  The air was bracing, the surf splendid.

Mr. Trevlyn’s carriage drove down soon after Mrs. Belgrade had finished her morning’s “dip;” and Margie and Mr. Linmere, accompanied by Alexandrine Lee, alighted.  They were in bathing costume, and Miss Lee, espying Arch, fastened upon him without ceremony.

“Oh, Mr. Trevlyn,” she said, animatedly, “I am glad to have come across you.  I was just telling Mr. Linmere that two ladies were hardly safe with only one gentleman in such a surf as there is this morning.  I shall have to depend on you to take care of me.  Shall I?”

Of course, Arch could not refuse, and apologizing to Mrs. Belgrade, who good-naturedly urged him forward, he took charge of Miss Lee.

Linmere offered Margie his hand to lead her in, but she declined.  He kept close beside her, and when they stood waist deep in the water, and a huge breaker was approaching, he put his arm around her shoulders.  With an impatient gesture she tore herself away.  He made an effort to retain her, and in the struggle Margie lost her footing, and the receding wave bore her out to sea.