h of anxiety, "It wasn't Miss
Moore's idea that you should bring me flowers, was it?"

"No." The squire grinned at her suddenly. "The worthy Columbus was
responsible for that. I found him routing in the lily-bed after snails or
some such delicacy. He was so infernally busy he made me feel ashamed. So
I went down on my knees and joined him, gathered the lot,--nearly killed
myself over it, but that's an unimportant detail. Now for your
champagne! You'll feel a different woman when you've had it."

He departed, leaving his wife looking after him with an odd wistfulness
in her eyes. She was seeing him in a new light which made her feel
strangely uncertain of herself also. Was it possible that all these years
of misunderstanding, which she had regarded as inevitable, might have
been avoided after all?

A quick sigh rose to her lips as again she took his flowers and held them
against her face.

CHAPTER VII

THE SPELL

A wonderful summer evening followed the sultry day. The sun sank
gloriously behind High Shale, and a soft breeze blew in from the sea.

On the slope of the hill behind the lighthouse and above the miners'
village there stood an old thatched barn, and about this a knot of men
and youths loitered, smoking and talking in a desultory, discontented
fashion. On the other side of the barn a shrill cackling proclaimed the
presence of some of the feminine portion of the community, and the
occasional squall of a baby or a squeal of a bigger child testified to
the fact that the greater part of the village population awaited the
entertainment which Green contrived to give on the first Saturday of
every month.

He had started these concerts two winters before down in the village of
Little Shale, and they had originally been for men and boys only, but
the women had grumbled so loudly at their exclusion that Green had very
soon realized the necessity of extending a welcome to them also. So now
they flocked in a body to his support, even threatening to crowd out
the men in the winter evenings when he had to assemble his audience at
the Village Club at Little Shale. But in the summer, as a concession to
High Shale, he held his concerts, whenever feasible, up on the hill,
and practically the whole of High Shale village came to them. Little
Shale was also well represented, but he always felt that he was in
closer touch with the miners on these occasions, when he met them on
their own ground.

The two villages w