ne, leaving her standing there. He had satisfied the urge of
a burning curiosity which had assailed him first as she sat in the
window of Laura's drawing-room, and he noticed the magnolia texture of
her healthy pallor and the little golden powdering of freckles on her
nose. He had fought against that recollection. He had been ashamed to
have begun it there. Now as he strode away into the dark he swore to
himself that he was satisfied; he would never let himself go again;
that he would be faithful to Laura in thought and deed.

As for Caroline--well, he remembered that she had walked out with a
young man named Wilf; probably with others before that. A kiss more or
less was not a serious thing to a girl of that sort; though he felt
sorry, all the same, that he had been betrayed into giving it.

* * * * * *

Caroline made her way up the dark drive, and on reaching the door she
felt in her coat pocket for the latch-key. It was not there. Then she
sought hastily in her other pocket and could not find it. Evidently
she had dropped it on the road somewhere, but no one could see a small
article like that now, even if it lay on the pathway.

Well, there was nothing for it but to knock at the door. She looked up
at the house which loomed above her, a dark block with faintly gleaming
windows, and the thud, thud, made by her knuckles seemed
extraordinarily loud. But the stillness which followed seemed
intense--seemed only to be accentuated by the heavy sound of the sea
which she never consciously heard in the daytime, any more than Miss
Ethel or the other Thorhaven people.

After a while she knocked again, but the house still lay quiet--with
the peculiar deadness about it of houses seen from the outside when
those within are all asleep. In the room just above the front door
Miss Ethel was deep in the first stupid slumber of exhaustion produced
by a long day's work and the evening walk in a high wind. She was so
tired that she had ceased some time ago to lie awake and listen for
Caroline coming in, though she felt it was her duty to do so. But
nearly every night now she went to bed early and lay like a log, not
caring about anything more until the morning. If the world came to an
end, she must go to bed--she could no more.

Caroline down below stood hesitating whether to throw a stone up or
not, but remembered that Mrs. Bradford was so timid that she always
covered up her ears with