it be."

And the kiss that passed between them was as the sealing of a vow.

CHAPTER IV

COUNSEL

Juliet and Columbus sat in a sheltered nook on the shore and gazed
thoughtfully out to sea. It was a warm morning after a night of tempest,
and the beach was strewn with seaweed after an unusually high tide.

Columbus sat with a puckered brow. In his heart he wanted to be pottering
about among these ocean treasures which had a peculiar fascination for
his doggy soul. But a greater call was upon him, keeping him where he
was. Though she had not uttered one word to detain him, he had a strong
conviction that his mistress wanted him, and so, stolidly, he remained
beside her, his sharp little eyes flashing to and fro, sometimes watching
the great waves riding in, sometimes following the curving flight of a
sea-gull, sometimes fixed in immensely dignified contemplation upon the
quivering tip of his nose. His nostrils worked perpetually. The air was
teeming with interesting scents; but not one of them could lure him from
his mistress's side while he sensed her need of him. His body might be
fat and bulging, but his spirit was a thing of keen perceptions and
ardent, burning devotion, capable of denying every impulse save the love
that was its mainspring.

Juliet was certainly very thoughtful that day. She also was watching the
waves, but the wide brow was slightly drawn and the grey eyes were not
so serene as usual. She had the look of one wrestling with a difficult
problem. The roar of the sea was all about her, blotting out every other
sound, even the calling of the gulls. Her arm encircled Columbus who was
pressed solicitously close to her side. They had been sitting so, almost
without moving, for over half-an-hour.

Suddenly Columbus turned his head sharply, and a growl swelled through
him. Juliet looked round, and in a moment she had started to her feet. A
man's figure, lithe and spare, with something of a monkey's agility of
movement, was coming to her over the stones. They met in a shelving
hollow of shingle that had been washed by the sea.

"Oh, Charles!" she said impulsively. "It is good of you to come!"

He glanced around him as he clasped her hand, his ugly face brimming with
mischief. "It is rather--considering the risk I run. I trust your
irascible husband is well out of the way?"

She laughed, though not very heartily. "Yes, he has gone to town. I
didn't want him to. I wish I had stopped him."

H