Page:Barbour--Joan of the ilsand.djvu/72

60 "Well, let the babe and suckling go on talking for a minute," persisted Joan. "Now, if you fritter away more time and money in the pursuit of pearls, and don't find any, it looks very much to me as though you would fall between two stools, and find yourself in Queer-street, as you say."

Chester bit off the end of a cigar and examined it pensively without replying.

"I hate to butt into other people's affairs, Miss Trent," Keith said, "and there's a deal of common sense in your view, but I certainly think it would be a mistake not to give the pearl fishing a trial before abandoning it."

Chester flung a grateful glance at his newly found supporter.

"You don't find a sort of gold mine at your front door every day in the week, you know, sis," he urged.

"You know perfectly well," the girl said, "that I don't want to stand in your way for an instant. I'm only warning you that you appear to me to be on the threshold of disaster, and I want you to look this thing squarely in the face. To go on as you are doing seems like madness. Chester, you have lost your grip. Your judgment is not as sound as I have known it to be. Perhaps you need a holiday. Perhaps you only need to take greater care of yourself. Anyway, you vacillate where