ealising, I mean, that there was nothing
for it but this step to free her from a species of immurement charged
with menace to her faith and to her love; and this being her mood, her
affection for me found room to show itself; so that now I never could
meet her eyes without seeing how wholly I had her dear heart, and how
happy she was in this recurrence of brightening out of her love from
the gloom and consternation that attended the start of our headlong
wild adventure.

I flattered myself that we were to be fortunate in our weather;
certainly all that afternoon was as fair and beautiful in its marine
atmosphere of autumn as living creature could desire. The blues and
greens of the prospect of heaven and sea were enriched by the looming,
towering terraces of Beachy Head, hanging large and looking near upon
our starboard quarter, though I believe Caudel had not sailed very deep
within the sphere in which the high-perched lantern is visible before
shifting his helm for a straight down Channel course. A lugger with
red canvas, the hue of which was deepened yet by the delicate
crimsoning of the sun that was now sloping into the Atlantic, gliding
betwixt us and the heap of land in the north, brought out the white
chalk of the heights into a snow-white brilliance that almost startled
the eye at first sight of it.

"I should imagine that a huge iceberg shows like that," said I to Grace.

"I wish I had my paint-box here," she answered, her eyes glistening as
she looked.

"Grace," said I, "I have an idea. We will spend our honeymoon in the
_Spitfire_. We will lay in a stock of paint-boxes, easels and lead
pencils, sail round the coast, heave our little ship to off every point
of beauty, and take our fill of English shore scenery."

"Do you mean to wait till next summer?" she asked, glancing at me shyly
through her lashes, though with a hint of coquetry too in the spirit of
her look.

I laughed out, seeing her meaning, for to be sure a coastal cruise in a
twenty-six ton dandy would hardly fit the winter months of Great
Britain, and by the time we should be prepared to enter upon our
honeymoon, this autumn that was now dying would, I fear, be entirely
dead.

"Then, it shall be Paris, Brussels, and Rome according to your own
programme," said I.

She coloured, and said something about there being plenty of time to
talk about such a matter as that, and went to the rail and leaned over
it, watching the distant noble mas