l ill for a month after and the doctor died
of overwork.' They will date back to it as ancient peoples did to the
Flood. It will be a Great White Stone Day to generations to come. Let
us hope there will be no new white stones over yonder"--nodding in the
direction of the churchyard--"in commemoration of that great day."

"We will draw the line short of that," said Margaret seriously.

"We'll give them all the gache they can eat--home-made, and such as
their constitutions are accustomed to,--and fruit and frivolities from
Guernsey. I'll go across the Saturday before--"

"_We_ will go across," said Margaret.

"Of course we will. We older children will go, and we'll take Nurse
with us,"--with a bow towards Hennie Penny,--"and we'll make a day of
it, and have ices again at that place in the Arcade, and then we'll go
round the shops and clear them out for the benefit of Sark."

"Ripping!" said Miss Penny.

VII

They had already made one trip to Guernsey, crossing by the early
Saturday boat and returning the same evening.

But that was a strictly business affair.

"We're feeling frightfully fossilised at having bought nothing, except
what we absolutely needed, for nearly a month," said Miss Penny. "From
that point of view I should imagine the Garden of Eden may have been
just a trifle slow--"

"Ah, you see, Mother Eve hadn't had the advantages of a superior
education," said Graeme.

"And there are some fripperies we simply _must_ have," said Miss
Penny, "even for a runaway wedding like this. You see, when we decided
to come here we had no idea how much farther we were going, and so we
couldn't possibly provide. Of course if we had known you were here--"

At which Margaret laughed.

"You would have provided accordingly," said Graeme. "Well, you must
put all the blame on to Mr. Pixley. I wonder what he would say if he
knew all about it."

"He would use language unadapted to prayer-meetings and public
platforms," said Miss Penny. "He can, you know, when he tries hard."

"I imagined so. It will be rather amusing to see what he'll do when he
finds out."

"He'll do the very nastiest thing that is open to him, whatever that
is, and poor Mrs. Pixley will have an exceedingly bad time. And he'll
probably have a fit on his own account."

"Oh, we can hardly expect him to be so kind as all that--"

"The only one I'm sorry for is Charles Svendt. He's really not half a
bad sort, in his way, you know," said Miss Penn