r in his
own enjoyment. Doubtless she was tired out, and was only kept from
following Miss Penny's example by his crass stupidity in sitting there
in that stolid fashion.

"Pray forgive me!" he said, as he rose quietly. "You must be tired,
too. I will take the other room and you can join Miss Penny."

"I'm not the least tired. I never felt more awake in my life. Surely
the wind has fallen."

He went to the door and opened it and looked out.

"It is only a lull. It will probably blow up again stronger than
ever," and as he turned he found her at his elbow.

"Let us go outside," she said, and he could have taken her into his
arms. Instead, he tiptoed across the room and got her cloak, and
placed it on her shoulders with a new, vast sense of proprietorship.

He knew just how she felt. Even that room of rare delights was not
large enough just then for her and for him. The whole wide world, and
the illimitable heights of the heavens, could scarce contain that
which was in them. Their hearts were full, and that which was in them
was that of which God is the ultimate perfection. And in their ears,
in the gaps of the storm, was the roaring thunder of the great white
waves as they tore along the black sides of Brecqhou.

"Tell me more about those letters," she said briefly. "What did you
write?"

"I wrote, nominally, to inform you of Lady Elspeth's sudden call to
Scotland, but actually to tell you how sorely I regretted the sudden
break in our acquaintance which had become to me so very great a
delight."

"And when you got no answer?"

"I waited and waited, and then I had a sudden fear that you might be
ill. And to satisfy myself I called on Mr. Pixley at his office. He
told me you were quite well, that you had had my letters, and had
handed them to him."

"Anything more?"

"Yes,--he said you were shortly to marry his son."

"That is what he wished,--and that is why I am here."

"Thank God! Then I may tell you, Margaret. I had been building castles
and you were mistress of them all and of my whole heart. When Mr.
Pixley knocked them into dust I came here to fight it out by myself,
and a black time I had. Then God, in His goodness, put it into your
heart to come too. Will you marry me, Margaret?"

"Yes, Jock."

And there, in the lull of the gale, in the lee of the lonely house on
Brecqhou, they plighted their troth with no more need of feeble words,
for their hearts had gone out to one another.

And all al