Imperial Valley press., 1910-12-24

high and indignant voice cut athwart his amazement.
 Are prisoners allowed no privacy, sir, on your ship?"
 '1 beg your pardon" began the lieu tenant, staring in bewilderment appre- citation of the loveiness before him, "but''-
 twill you close the door?" cried the girl, with stamp of her foot, the color flaming into her face again. It was the second time he had made her blush; once when she wore the dress of the other sex, and this time in her own.
 He turned precipitately, dragging the door after him, and then found himself just where he had been be- fore-alone in the cabin. He was making no progress, unless it was to get into the bad graces of the young lady, whom he found charming in any guise, and of whom he could say that the more frequently he saw her the more frequently he desired to be in her company.
 He stood baffled yet amused by the 1 situation, and then he knocked again on the cabin door, this time more 1 firmly
 "Am I not to be allowed to dress in peace?" came from the other side of the door with asperity.
 Certainly, madam; by all means. But will you allow me-may I be per mitted to-
 "Well, what is it?"
 "I wish to see you out here as soon as you are ready to receive me-" re- 1 turned the abashed lieutenant.
 eff you will let me alone I shall be ready in few moments" came back the answer viciously trough the door.
 Those moments were long ones to the young man idling on the transom and staring at the after cabin bulk head.
 Now, Susan Hubbell was as little given to the adornment of her per son es any woman, for she had aso- ciated with men, none of whom could she by any possibility regard as equals, or companions, or individuals whose admiration she cared to eX- cite, or whose attention she wished to provoke. For all the vaporings of the mate, she regarded him from very much the point that the average ship master regarded his principal subordi- nate in those days, and any closer al- liance, which, the wish being father to the thought, he had alluded to, had never entered her head
 She had worn the clothes of the sailor lad with a careless indifference which was in keeping with her as- sumption of the youthful and mascu- line station. Of course, she was nat urally fond of pretty things, but she was that rara avis in any age, a wo- man who knew little and cared less about the fashions. Her feminine and proper garments were cut for con- fort and convenience.
 Beautiful she would ever be, per- haps more beautiful in the unadorned simplicity of the garments of her fan cy than in the more elaborate toilets of day in which dress played, if pos sible, a larger part in feminine econ omy-and in masculine extravaganza than it does even at present. There was a wild picturesqueness about her attire, a combination of color and form accentuating her freedom, which was a novel and as refreshing as the variant moods and colors of the ocean which had been her home. In a word, she might not be fashionable, but she was never dowdy.
 Association with her plain but hon est and high -souled father had taught her instinctivey to recognize a gen tleman, and for practically the first time in her life she had been thrown in contact with one who fully de- served that title. Likewise for the first time she found herself thinking seriously of the things that she was putting on
 The mirror was an object of little use in her sea boudoir, but today she stared longer and harder into it than she had ever done in her life. In her infrequent visits to great cities while the Hiram and Susan was receiving itc. di,,cr h, cn1,,n nd in nn,nt lAnlt ch Q