ll. In the afternoon sun it glowed like a
wall of copper. For a few minutes both were instinctively silent.
There was nothing to be said of such a spectacle.

Then Miss Holland suddenly asked--

"Do you live near the sea?"

"Not very," he answered with his air of finality.

But this time she persisted.

"What is your part of the country?"

"Berwickshire," he said briefly.

"Do you happen to know a minister there--a Mr Burnett?" she inquired.

"That is my own name," he said quietly.

"Mr Alexander Burnett?"

He nodded.

"That is very funny," she said. "There must be two of you. I happen
to have stayed in those parts and met the other."

There seemed to be no expression at all in his eyes as they met hers;
nor did hers reveal anything. Then he looked round them quietly.
There were several passengers not far away.

"It would be rather pleasant in the bows," he suggested. "Shall we
move along there for a little?"

He made the proposal very courteously, and yet it sounded almost as
much a command as a suggestion, and he began to move even as he spoke.
She started too, and exchanging a casual sentence as they went, they
made their way forward till they stood together in the very prow with
the bow wave beneath their feet, and the air beating cold upon their
faces,--a striking solitary couple.

"I'm wondering if yon's a married meenister!" said one of their
fellow-passengers--a facetious gentleman.

"It's no' his wife, anyhow!" grinned his friend.

A little later the wit wondered again.

"I'm wondering how long thae two are gaun tae stand there!" he said
this time.

The cliffs fell and a green sound opened. The mail boat turned into
the sound, opening inland prospects all the while. A snug bay followed
the sound, with a little grey-gabled town clinging to the very wash of
the tide, and a host of little vessels in the midst. Into the bay
pounded the mail boat and up towards the town, and only then did the
gallant minister and his fair acquaintance stroll back from the bows.
The wag and his friend looked at them curiously, but they had to admit
that such a prolonged flirtation had seldom left fewer visible traces.
They might have been brother and sister, they both looked so
indifferent.

The gangway shot aboard, and with a brief hand-shake the pair parted.
A few minutes later Miss Holland was being greeted by an elderly
gentleman in a heavy ulster, whilst the minister was following a porter
to