to 'em. Why, a hunderd
things: they could be wracked and drowned, or catched and killed, or
tooked and hung." Then, bursting into a laugh at Eve's face of horror,
she exclaimed, "Pack o' stuff, nonsense! Don't 'ee take heed o' no
fancies nor rubbish o' that sort. They'll come back safe enuf, as
they've allays done afore. Nothin's ever happened to 'em yet: what
should make it now? T' world ain't a-comin' to an end 'cos you'm come
down fra' London town. There, get along with 'ee, do!" and she pushed
her gently toward the door, adding, with a sigh, "'Twould be a poor tale
if Adam was never to come back now, and it the first time he ever left
behind un anything he cared to see agen."

Eve soon reached her point of observation, and under shelter of the
hedge she stood looking with anxious eyes in the direction from which
Adam was to come. It had been a clear bright day, and the air blew fresh
and cool; the sky (except to windward, where a few white fleecy masses
lay scattered about) was cloudless; the sea was of a deep-indigo blue,
flecked with ridges of foam, which unfurled and spread along each wave,
crested its tip and rode triumphant to the shore. Inside the Peak, over
the harbor, the gulls were congregated, some fluttering over the water,
some riding on its surface, some flying in circles over the heights, now
green and soft with the thick fresh grass of spring. Down the spine of
the cliff the tangle of brier-wood and brambles, though not leafless,
still showed brown, and the long trails which were lifted and bowed down
as the sudden gusts of wind swept over them, looked bare and wintry.

Eve gave an involuntary shiver, and her eyes, so quick to drink in each
varied aspect of the sea, now seemed to try and shut out its beauty from
before her.

What should she do if the wind blew and the waves rose as she had seen
them do of late, rejoicing in the sight, with Adam by her side? But
with him away, she here alone--oh, her spirit sank within her; and to
drive away the thoughts which came crowding into her mind she left her
shelter, and, hurrying along the little path, crossed the cress-grown
brook, and was soon halfway up the craggy ascent, when Adam, who had
reached the top from the other side, called out, "Hallo! I didn't think
to find you here. We'd best walk back a bit, or else we shall be just in
the eye of the wind, and it's coming on rather fresh."

"You won't go if it blows, Adam?" and Eve's face betrayed her anxi