you,
in token of my resolution, if you like. But wait: is there not some
one coming across the sand! How eerie it looks, such a tall black
figure standing between the earth and sky!"

Phillis had good sight, or she would hardly have distinguished the
figure, which was now motionless, at such a distance. In another
moment she even announced that its draperies showed it to be a woman,
before she opened her book and commenced reading.

There is something very striking in a lonely central figure in a
scene, the outline cuts so sharply against the horizon. Nan's eyes
seemed riveted on it as she listened to Phillis's voice; it seemed to
her as immovable as a Sphinx, its rigidity lending a sort of
barrenness and forlornness to the landscape, a black edition of human
nature set under a violet and opal sky.

She almost started when it moved, at last, with a steady bearing, as
it seemed, towards them; then curiosity quickened into interest, and
she touched Phillis's arm, whispering breathlessly,--

"The Sphinx moves! Look--is not that Mrs. Cheyne, the lady who lives
at the White House near us, who always looks so lonely and unhappy?"

"Hush!" returned Phillis, "she will hear you;" and then Mrs. Cheyne
approached with the same swift even walk. She looked at them for a
moment, as she passed, with a sort of well-bred surprise in her air,
as though she marvelled to see them there; her black dress touched
Laddie, and he caught at it with an impotent bark.

The sisters must have made a pretty picture, as they sat almost
clinging together on the stone: one of Nan's little white hands rested
on Laddie's head, the other lay on Phillis's lap. Phillis glanced up
from her book, keen-eyed and alert in a moment; she turned her head to
look at the stranger that had excited her interest, and then rose to
her feet with a little cry of dismay.

"Oh, Nan, I am afraid she has hurt herself! She gave such a slip just
now. I wonder what has happened? She is leaning against the
breakwater, too. Shall we go and ask her if she feels ill or
anything?"

"You may go," was Nan's answer. Nevertheless, she followed Phillis.

Mrs. Cheyne looked up at them a little sharply as they came towards
her. Her face was gray and contracted with pain.

"I have slipped on a wet stone, and my foot has somehow turned on me,"
she said, quickly, as Phillis ran up to her. "It was very stupid. I
cannot think how it happened; but I have certainly sprained my ankle.
It