ns.
The rosy light edged the white gown with pink and the fringes of her
dark hair were crinkly lines of fire. Her face was grave, almost sad.

John Ellery stood still, with one foot uplifted for a step. The girl
looked out over the water and he looked at her. Then a crow, one of
several whirling above the pines, spied the intruder and screamed a
warning. The minister was startled and stepped back. A dead limb beneath
his foot cracked sharply. Grace turned and saw him.

"Oh!" she cried. "Who is it?"

Ellery emerged from the shadow.

"Don't be frightened, Miss Van Horne," he said. "It is--er--I."

This statement was neither brilliant nor original; even as an
identification it lacked considerable.

"I?" repeated the girl. "Who? Oh! Why--"

The minister came forward.

"Good afternoon, Miss Van Horne," he stammered. "I'm afraid I frightened
you."

She was looking at him with a queer expression, almost as if she
scarcely believed him real.

"I hope--" he began again. She interrupted him.

"No," she said confusedly, "you didn't frighten me. I was a little
startled when I saw you there behind me. It seemed so odd, because I was
just thinking--No, I wasn't frightened. What is there to be frightened
of--in Trumet?"

He had extended his hand, but partially withdrew it, not sure how even
such a perfunctory act of friendliness might be received. She saved him
embarrassment by frankly offering her own.

"Not much, that's a fact," he said, in answer to her question. He
would have liked to ask what she had been thinking that made his sudden
appearance seem so odd.

"You came to see the sunset, I suppose?" she said hurriedly, as if to
head off a question. "So did I. It is a beautiful evening for a walk,
isn't it?"

She had said precisely the same thing on that other evening, when they
stood in the middle of "Hammond's Turn-off" in the driving rain. He
remembered it, and so, evidently, did she, for she colored slightly and
smiled.

"I mean it this time," she said. "I'm glad you didn't get cold from your
wetting the other day."

"Oh! I wasn't very wet. You wouldn't let me lend you the umbrella, so I
had that to protect me on the way home."

"Not then; I meant the other morning when Nat--Cap'n Hammond--met you
out on the flats. He said you were wading the main channel and it was
over your boots."

"Over my boots! Is that all he said? Over my head would be the plain
truth. To cross it I should have had to swim an