arms round
my neck, and clung to me, in a passion of tears. It was some minutes
before she could recover her self-command. I had never seen her abandon
herself to such a paroxysm before.

"Julia, my poor girl!" I said, "I did not think you would take it so
much to heart as this."

"I shall come all right directly," she sobbed, sitting down, and
trembling from head to foot. "Johanna said you would come, but I was not
sure."

"Yes, I am here," I answered, with a very dreary feeling about me.

"That is enough," said Julia; "you need not say a word more. Let us
forget it, both of us. You will only give me your promise never to see
her, or speak to her again."

It might be a fair thing for her to ask, but it was not a fair thing for
me to promise. Olivia had told me she had no friends at all except
Tardif and me; and if the gossip of the Sark people drove her from the
shelter of his roof, I should be her only resource; and I believed she
would come frankly to me for help.

"Olivia quite understands about my engagement to you," I said. "I told
her at once that we were going to be married, and that I hoped she would
find a friend in you."'

"A friend in me, Martin!" she exclaimed, in a tone of indignant
surprise; "you could not ask me to be that!"

"Not now, I suppose," I replied; "the girl is as innocent and blameless
as any girl living; but I dare say you would sooner befriend the most
good-for-nothing Jezebel in the Channel Islands."

"Yes, I would," she said. "An innocent girl indeed! I only wish she had
been killed when she fell from the cliff."

"Hush!" I cried, shuddering at the bare mention of Olivia's death; "you
do not know what you say. It is worse than useless to talk about her. I
came to ask you to think no more of what passed between us yesterday."

"But you are going to persist in your infatuation," said Julia; "you can
never deceive me. I know you too well. Oh, I see that you still think
the same of her'"

"You know nothing about her," I replied.

"And I shall take care I never do," she interrupted, spitefully.

"So it is of no use to go on quarrelling about her," I continued, taking
no notice of the interruption. "I made up my mind before I came here
that I must see as little as possible of her for the future. You must
understand, Julia, she has never given me a particle of reason to
suppose she loves me."

"But you are still in love with her?" she asked.

I stood biting my nails to the q