you. I give you no hope that my
answer, should you renew this offer a year hence or at any other time,
will differ from that I give you to-day. I do not think there is the
slightest probability of such a thing. Also, it must be understood that
you are not to speak to my father about this matter, or to trouble me in
any way. Do you consent?"

"Yes," he answered, "I consent. You have me at your mercy."

"Very well. And now, Mr. Davies, good-bye. No, do not walk back with me.
I had rather go by myself. But I want to say this: I am very sorry
for what has happened. I have not wished it to happen. I have never
encouraged it, and my hands are clean of it. But I am sorry, sorry
beyond measure, and I repeat what I said before--seek out some other
woman and marry her."

"That is the cruellest thing of all the cruel things which you have
said," he answered.

"I did not mean it to be cruel, Mr. Davies, but I suppose that the truth
often is. And now good-bye," and Beatrice stretched out her hand.

He touched it, and she turned and went. But Owen did not go. He sat upon
the rock, his head bowed in misery. He had staked all his hopes upon
this woman. She was the one desirable thing to him, the one star in
his somewhat leaden sky, and now that star was eclipsed. Her words were
unequivocal, they gave but little hope. Beatrice was scarcely a woman to
turn round in six months or a year. On the contrary, there was a fixity
about her which frightened him. What could be the cause of it? How came
it that she should be so ready to reject him, and all he had to offer
her? After all, she was a girl in a small position. She could not be
looking forward to a better match. Nor would the prospect move her one
way or another. There must be a reason for it. Perhaps he had a rival,
surely that must be the cause. Some enemy had done this thing. But who?

At this moment a woman's shadow fell athwart him.

"Oh, have you come back?" he cried, springing to his feet.

"If you mean Beatrice," answered a voice--it was Elizabeth's--"she went
down to the beach ten minutes ago. I happened to be on the cliff, and I
saw her."

"Oh, I beg your pardon, Miss Granger," he said faintly. "I did not see
who it was."

Elizabeth sat down upon the rock where her sister had sat, and, seeing
the little holes in the breach, began indolently to clear them of the
sand which Beatrice had swept over them with her foot. This was no
difficult matter, for the holes were d