not visibly
stirred even when she had heard the Camerons' proposition.

They wanted Nora--these rich people who had so much in life wanted the
blossom of girlhood that had never bloomed for them. John Cameron
pleaded his cause well.

"We will look on her as our own," he said at last. "We have grown to
love her this summer. She is beautiful and clever--she has a right to
more than Racicot can give her. You have other children--we are
childless. And we do not take her from you utterly. You will see her
every summer when we come to Dalveigh."

"It won't be the same thing quite," said Nathan Shelley drily. "She'll
belong to your life then--not ours. And no matter how many young ones
folks has, they don't want to lose none of 'em. But I dunno as we
ought to let our feelings stand in Nora's light. She's clever, and
she's been hankering for more'n we can ever give her. I was the same
way once. Lord, how I raged at Racicot! I broke away finally--went to
a city and got work. But it wasn't no use. I'd left it too long. The
sea had got into my blood. I toughed it out for two years, and then I
had to come back. I didn't want to, mark you, but I had to come. Been
here ever since. But maybe 'twill be different with the girl. She's
younger than I was; if the hankering for the sea and the life of the
shore hasn't got into her too deep, maybe she'll be able to cut loose
for good. But you don't know how the sea calls to one of its own."

Cameron smiled. He thought that this dry old salt was a bit of a poet
in his own way. Very likely Nora got her ability and originality from
him. There did not seem to be a great deal in the phlegmatic,
good-looking mother.

"What say, wife?" asked Shelley at last.

His wife had said in her slow way, "Leave it to Nora," and to Nora it
was left.

When she came in at last, her face stung to radiant beauty by the
northwest wind, she found it hard to tell them after all. She looked
at her mother appealingly.

"Is it go or stay, girl," demanded her father brusquely.

"I think I'll go," said Nora slowly. Then, catching sight of her
mother's face, she ran to her and flung her arms about her. "But I'll
never forget you, Mother," she cried. "I'll love you always--you and
Father."

Her mother loosened the clinging arms and pushed her gently towards
the Camerons.

"Go to them," she said calmly. "You belong to them now."

The news spread quickly over Racicot. Before night everyone on the
harbour shor