o idea. Step into the passage and I will shut the door. There! How
long have you been outside?"

"Oh, since they brought them up. But is it true?"

"Yes, yes, it is true. She will recover now. And you have stood all this
time in the wet night. I am sure that Beatrice ought to be flattered."

"Not at all. It seemed so awful, and--I--I take such an interest----"
and he broke off.

"Such an interest in Beatrice," said Elizabeth drily, supplying the
hiatus. "Yes, so it seems," and suddenly, as though by chance, she moved
the candle which she held, in such fashion that the light fell full
upon Owen Davies' face. It was a slow heavy countenance, but not without
comeliness. The skin was fresh as a child's, the eyes were large, blue,
and mild, and the brown hair grew in waves that many a woman might have
envied. Indeed had it not been for a short but strongly growing beard,
it would have been easy to believe that the countenance was that of a
boy of nineteen rather than of a man over thirty. Neither time nor care
had drawn a single line upon it; it told of perfect and robust health
and yet bore the bloom of childhood. It was the face of a man who might
live to a hundred and still look young, nor did the form belie it.

Mr. Davies blushed up to his eyes, blushed like a girl beneath
Elizabeth's scrutiny. "Naturally I take an interest in a neighbour's
fate," he said, in his slow deliberate way. "She is quite safe, then?"

"I believe so," answered Elizabeth.

"Thank God!" he said, or rather it seemed to break from him in a sigh of
relief. "How did the gentleman, Mr. Bingham, come to be found with her?"

"How should I know?" she answered with a shrug. "Beatrice saved his life
somehow, clung fast to him even after she was insensible."

"It is very wonderful. I never heard of such a thing. What is he like?"

"He is one of the finest-looking men I ever saw," answered Elizabeth,
always watching him.

"Ah. But he is married, I think, Miss Granger?"

"Oh, yes, he is married to the daughter of a peer, very much
married--and very little, I should say."

"I do not quite understand, Miss Granger."

"Don't you, Mr. Davies? then use your eyes when you see them together."

"I should not see anything. I am not quick like you," he added.

"How do you mean to get back to the Castle to-night, Mr. Davies? You
cannot row back in this wind, and the seas will be breaking over the
causeway."

"Oh, I shall manage. I am wet already. An e