ls had dilated with anger until her eyes looked
black; her head was very erect on her slim shoulders. He thought to
himself that here were traces of the nymph after all---at least, here
was a girl who might conceivably look like one by artificial light and
in the right gown. And beyond that, he was vaguely conscious of
something in her that was pliant yet unbreakable--or almost
unbreakable--and which defied him and all the world.

"What will your other cavalier say to that?" he said. "I expect he
will want to see you take the shine out of all the other girls once
more."

"Excuse me. There is some one waiting to come through," said Caroline
with immense aloofness.

But inwardly she was furious with herself for feeling a just
perceptible response to his virile personality and his absolute
sureness. Anything he _wanted_---- Then she bent her mind resolutely
upon a respected inhabitant of Thorhaven.

"Yes, lovely day, isn't it?" she said. "I suppose you're full up with
visitors?"

The woman replied that she was full up, and furthermore that she would
remain in the same happy condition until October, then said casually as
she moved off: "I didn't know you were living servant with Miss Wilson.
I suppose you'll stop there altogether when this job on the promenade
is done?"

"I aren't--I'm not living servant with her," said Caroline sharply.
"Who's been telling you that? I simply went to light the fire for them
in the morning and do a few odd jobs until they could get somebody
permanent."

"But I always understood from Mrs. Creddle you were going to be servant
there," persisted the woman. "She once told me your aunt Ellen
promised years ago."

"Very likely she did," said Caroline. "I can't help that. Everybody
must do the best they can for themselves."

"Well, you're right there," answered the woman, and saying Amen thus to
the creed of her day, she took up her basket and went through the
turnstile.

_Chapter VII_

_Sea-Roke_

One afternoon at the turn of the tide, a sort of transformation scene
took place along the sands and on the promenade; a bank of cold vapour
advanced from the sea, through which the sun glimmered faintly yellow,
then disappeared. The girls' thin blouses began to flap limply against
their chilled arms; matrons turned a little red or blue about the nose;
children's hair either curled more tightly or hung limp, while their
cheeks took on a lovely colour in the cool dampnes