ast, it was her route on Saturday and Sunday, and he could not
suppose her to harbor caprice or any other feminine weakness.

Yes, there she was, in the very loveliest nook, the stone wall at her
back, and in front nice sandy levels for books and papers and
writing-pad.

"Miss Tucker, may I invade your solitude for a moment? Our mutual
friend, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, has written asking me to look
you up as a fellow countryman and see if I can be of any service to
you so far away from home."

Tommy looked up, observed a good-looking American holding a letter in
one hand and lifting a hat with the other, and bade him welcome.

"How kind of the bishop! But he is always doing kind things; his wife,
too. I have seen much of them since I came to England."

"My name is Appleton, Fergus Appleton, at your service."

"Won't you take a stone, or make yourself a hollow in the sand?" asked
Tommy hospitably. "I came out here to read and study, and get rid of
the week-enders. Isn't Bexley Sands a lovely spot, and do you ever get
tired of the bacon and the kippered herring, and the fruit tarts with
Devonshire cream?"

"I can't bear to begin an acquaintance with a lady by differing on
such vital points, but I do get tired of these Bexley delicacies."

"Perhaps you have been here too long--or have you just come this
morning?"

Appleton swallowed his disappointment and hurt vanity, and remarked:
"No, I came on Friday." (He laid some emphasis on Friday.)

"The evening train is so incorrigibly slow! I only reached the hotel
at ten o'clock when I arrived on Thursday night." Miss Tucker shot a
rapid glance at the young man as she made this remark.

"I came by the morning express and arrived here at three on Friday,"
said Appleton.

Miss Tucker, with a slight display of perhaps legitimate temper,
turned suddenly upon him. "There! I have been trying for two minutes
to find out when you came, and now I know you were at my beastly
concert on Friday evening!"

"I certainly was, and very grateful I am, too."

"I suppose all through my life people will be turning up who were in
that room!" said Miss Tucker ungraciously. "I must tell somebody what
I feel about that concert! I should prefer some one who wasn't a
stranger, but you are a great deal better than nobody. Do you mind?"

Appleton laughed like a boy, and flung his hat a little distance into
a patch of sea-pinks.

"Not a bit. Use me, or abuse me, as you like, so long