“I don’t cry out against it,” Mallett laughed.  “I simply say that it is out of my line, and I have never been broken into it.  I was talking of buying a yacht, or rather of building one.”

“What size do you want?  I know of one to be had cheap, if you are thinking of a good big craft.”

And thus it was that Mallett came to hear of the yawl at Poole.

“I have fixed on the Osprey, Major Mallett,” Bertha Greendale said, when he took her down to dinner two days after he had last seen her.  “What do you say to that?  There are two or three yachts of the same name, but none of them is over thirty tons.”

“I think the Osprey is a pretty name, Miss Greendale.  I should have accepted the Crocodile if you had suggested it.  The name that you have chosen will suit admirably; so henceforth she shall be the Osprey, pending your formally christening her by that name.  I might, of course, be hypercritical and point out that, although a fishing eagle, the Osprey can scarcely be called a water bird, inasmuch that it is no swimmer.”

“But it is hypercritical even to suggest such a thing,” she said, pouting.  “The Osprey has to do with the sea.  It is strong and swift on the wing, and the sails of the yacht are wings, are they not?  Then it is strong and bold, and I am sure your boat will not be afraid to meet a storm.  Altogether, I think it is an excellent name.”

“I think it a very good name, too.”

“You ought to have one for your figurehead.”

“Yachts don’t have figureheads, else I would certainly have it.  At any rate, I will choose an eagle for my racing flag.”

“I have never been on board a yacht yet,” the girl said.  “I think I only know one man who has one, at least a large one; that is Mr. Carthew.  Of course you know him; he had a new one this spring—­the Phantom.  He has won several times this season.”

“I saw he had,” Frank said, quietly.  “Yes, I used to know him, but it’s seven or eight years since we met.”

“And you don’t like him,” she said, quickly.

“What makes you think that, Miss Greendale?”

“Oh, I can tell by the tone of your voice.”

“I don’t think it expressed anything but indifference, as it is such a long time since I met him.  But I never fancied him much.  I suppose we were not the same sort of men; and then, too, perhaps I am rather prejudiced from the fact that I know that he was considered rather a hard landlord.”

“I never heard that,” she said.

“No, I dare say you would not hear it, but I fancy it was so.  However, he sold his estate, at least so I heard.”

“Yes, he told me that he did not care for country life.  I have seen him several times since we came up to town.  He keeps race horses, you know.  His horse was second in the Derby this spring.  That takes him a good deal away, else one would meet him more often, for he knows a great many people we do.”