ped impatiently in the stable.

The master of Orvilliere Farm was Dominic Le Mierre, a bachelor, a
hard worker, and a more than respectable member of the parish of
Saint Pierre du Bois. It seemed that he did not mind the boisterous
wind this evening as he ate his supper hurriedly in the gloomy
kitchen, whose windows shook at every touch of the blast.

Over the hills, and once more across country, the howling wind made
its way, past the old church of Saint Pierre du Bois, past the lanes
to Torteval parish, and along the high road to Pleinmont, where it
had full play over a wide moorland district, dotted with low masses
of gorze and groups of boulders.

Here, too, was just one little cottage to shake and grip and freeze
with biting draughts. It stood in a slight hollow on the summit of a
cliff overlooking Rocquaine Bay. Its mossy thatched roof overhung
tiny latticed windows, whose panes were golden red from the light of
the fire of dried sea-weed and furze heaped up on the hearth of
stone raised above the earthen sanded floor.

Round the fire a group of girls was gathered; for the most part they
were just homely, pleasant creatures, but two stood out distinctly
from the rest; one, by reason of her beauty, the other, because of
her original and perhaps, forbidding, personality. The beautiful
one, Blaisette Simon, of Colomberie Farm, was small and plump and
very fair, with cheeks of a rosebud pink and lips full and ripe for
kisses. The round innocence of her blue eyes looked away all sense
from the men, so it was said, and she had lovers by the dozen. Added
to her beauty was the attraction of a very desirable little fortune
which she had already inherited from her mother, who was dead; and
by and bye, _Mess_' Simon would leave her the farm and all his
money, for she was an only child. She was disposed to be friendly
with Ellenor, again an only child, the one treasure of Jean and
Marie Cartier, of Les Casquets Cottage.

People wondered what Blaisette saw in the dark scowling girl, who
was reserved and offhand with people in general; and probably
Blaisette herself was puzzled as to _why_ she sought Ellenor so
constantly. The girls were a distinct contrast, not only in
character, but in appearance.

Ellenor was tall and angular, with a certain nobility and
haughtiness of carriage inherited from her fisherman father. Her
sallow skin, sombre grey eyes and heavy mouth, looked the
personification of night beside the sunny