nious lie at our second. I frowned at this possibility. The idea
of any one wishing to be quit of ME was most distasteful. However, I
was to find reassurance. On the last evening of my stay I suggested,
in the small smoking-room, that he and I should, as sticklers for
precedent, converse. We did so very pleasantly. And after a while I
happened to say that I had seen this afternoon a great number of
sea-gulls flying close to the shore.

"Sea-gulls?" said Laider, turning in his chair.

"Yes. And I don't think I had ever realized how extraordinarily
beautiful they are when their wings catch the light."

Laider threw a quick glance at me and away from me.

"You think them beautiful?"

"Surely."

"Well, perhaps they are, yes; I suppose they are. But--I don't like
seeing them. They always remind me of something--rather an awful
thing--that once happened to me."

IT was a very awful thing indeed.

[Transcriber's Note: I have closed contractions in the text, e.g.,
"does n't" has become "doesn't" etc.; in addition, on page 18,
paragraph 3, line 5, I have changed "Dyott" to "Dyatt".]

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