my natural cunning in selecting it--it's
the only thing I've got about me that I could offer you, except a match
box, and, as you don't smoke, you've no use for that--because you will
never be able to use it, I hope and trust, without thinking of the
unworthy donor and the debt of gratitude which no diamond bracelet could
discharge."

During this long speech, which he had made to conceal his eager desire
that she should accept, and his fear, that she should not, Nell's color
had come and gone, but she kept her eyes fixed on his steadily, as if
she were afraid to remove them.

"Are you going to accept it--or shall I fling it into the sea as a
votive offering? It would be a pity, for it is useful, a thing of sorts,
and has been my constant companion for many a year. Yes, or no?"

He held the pencil up, as if he were offering it by auction.

Nell hesitated, then she held out her hand without a word. He dropped
the battered pencil case into it, and his bantering tone changed
instantly.

"Thank you!" he said gravely, earnestly. "I--I was afraid that you were
going to refuse, and--well, that would have hurt me. And that would have
hurt you; for I know how gentle-hearted you are, Miss Nell."

Her hand closed over the pencil case tightly until the silver grew warm,
then she slipped the thing into her pocket.

"Please observe," he said, after a pause, during which he lit a
cigarette, "that I am not in need of any token as a reminder. I am not
likely to forget--Shorne Mills."

He turned on his elbow and gazed at the jetty and the cottages which
straggled up from it in the narrow ravine to the heights above, to the
unique and quaint village upon which the still hot sun was shining as
the boat danced toward it.

"No. I shan't find it difficult to remember--or regret."

He stifled a sigh. A sigh rose to her lips also, but she checked it, and
forced a smile.

"One does not break one's arm every day, and it is not easy to forget
that," she said; "and yet, I dare say you will remember Shorne Mills. I
don't think you will see many prettier places. Isn't it quite lovely
this evening, with the sun shining on the cliffs and making old
Brownie's windows glitter--like--like the diamonds in mamma's bracelet?"

She laughed with a girlish mischievousness, and ran on rapidly, as if
she must talk, as if a pause were to be averted as a peril.

"I've heard people say that there is only one other place in the world
like it--Cintra,