John Milton, resting on
his oars and scanning the group of rocks anxiously. His face, which was
quite strained with anxiety, suddenly flushed when he saw her, and then
recognizing the unmistakable significance of her look and attitude,
paled once more. He bent over his oars again; a few strokes brought him
close to the rock.

"I beg your pardon," he said hesitatingly, as he turned towards her and
laid aside his oars, "but--I thought--you were--in danger."

She glanced quickly round her. She had forgotten the tide! The ledge
between her and the shore was already a foot under brown sea-water. Yet
if she had not thought that it would look ridiculous, she would have
leaped down even then and waded ashore.

"It's nothing," she said coldly, with the air of one to whom the
situation was an everyday occurrence; "it's only a few steps and a
slight wetting--and my brother would have been here in a moment more."

John Milton's frank eyes made no secret of his mortification. "I ought
not to have disturbed you, I know," he said quickly, "I had no right.
But I was on the other shore opposite and I saw you come down here--that
is"--he blushed prodigiously--"I thought it MIGHT BE you--and I
ventured--I mean--won't you let me row you ashore?"

There seemed to be no reasonable excuse for refusing. She slipped
quickly into the boat without waiting for his helping hand, avoiding
that contact which only a moment ago she was trying to recall.

A few strokes brought them ashore. He continued his explanation with the
hopeless frankness and persistency of youth and inexperience. "I only
came here the day before yesterday. I would not have come, but Mr.
Fletcher, who has a cottage on the other shore, sent for me to offer
me my old place on the 'Clarion.' I had no idea of intruding upon your
privacy by calling here without permission."

Mrs. Ashwood had resumed her conventional courtesy without however
losing her feminine desire to make her companion pay for the agitation
he had caused her. "We would have been always pleased to see you," she
said vaguely, "and I hope, as you are here now, you will come with me to
the hotel. My brother"--

But he still retained his hold of the boat-rope without moving, and
continued, "I saw you yesterday, through the telescope, sitting in your
balcony; and later at night I think it was your shadow I saw near the
blue shaded lamp in the sitting-room by the window,--I don't mean the
RED LAMP that you have