f after all. For a young
man who was a connection of the Creddles--a railway porter by
trade--chanced to pass just as she was leaving the promenade, and
escorted her as far as the gate of the Cottage. He was a good-looking,
intelligent youth, with a pleasant, hearty manner and a fair share of
those solid qualities which adorned Mr. Creddle--the very man to make a
good father and a good husband. Already attracted by Caroline, he
would have gone further that night if he had not been discouraged, but
she thought of his broken and blackened finger-nails, and of the noise
he made when he drank tea, and so they parted at the gate without
anything definite being said.

But as she ran up the garden path with her self-esteem thus agreeably
restored, she had not the faintest idea that she had just passed by
that rarest thing in life--a chance of real happiness.

_Chapter X_

_Sunday Night_

The long street leading to the church was thronged with people who
walked slowly, smiling and talking to each other, either going towards
the lanes beyond the little town, or towards the sea. But a third
sort, much smaller in number, threaded rather quickly in and out of the
gently-moving crowds with an air of obeying some purpose within
themselves and not merely enjoying the lull in the wind at sundown and
the warm air. And above it all, clanging out from the grey tower, the
last bell rang out a single note urgently: "Come! Come! Come!"

A good many did not notice the bell at all; others just took it in as a
sound of Sunday evening which ministered pleasantly to their agreeable
feeling of having nothing to do but enjoy themselves; scarcely anyone
was troubled by declining that invitation, because the habit of
church-going has fallen from the position of a duty to that of a
compliment which the religiously disposed are willing to pay their God
if quite convenient.

Caroline walked briskly, now and then glancing up at the clock on the
tower as if she belonged to the purposeful minority which was making
its way to the grey porch. Not that she had started out with any
intention of going to the service, but her girl friend had come across
an admirer at the church corner, and so it became necessary to do
something in self-defence. Impossible to contemplate wandering alone
on a Sunday evening without a companion of any sort. The lack of a
"boy" for such a purpose made Caroline feel oddly self-conscious--as if
people were star