rld as the three contrite
urchins there present: and in this ecstasy of tenderness (to our shame)
quite forgot the object of our appearance.

* * * * *

When Tom Tot brought Mary home from Wolf Cove, my sister and the doctor
and I went that night by my sister's wish to distinguish the welcome, so
that, in all our harbour, there might be no quibble or continuing
suspicion; and we found the maid cutting her father's hair in the
kitchen (for she was a clever hand with the scissors and comb), as
though nothing had occurred--Skipper Tommy Lovejoy meanwhile with spirit
engaging the old man in a discussion of the unfailing topic; this being
the attitude of the Lord God Almighty towards the wretched sons of men,
whether feeling or not.

In the confusion of our entrance Mary whispered in my ear. "Davy lad,"
she said, with an air of mystery, "I got home."

"I'm glad, Mary," I answered, "that you got home."

"An', hist!" said she, "I got something t' tell you," said she, her eyes
flashing, "along about hell."

"Is you?" I asked, in fear, wishing she had not.

She nodded.

"Is you _got_ t' tell me, Mary?"

"Davy," she whispered, pursing her lips, in the pause regarding me with
a glance so significant of darkest mystery that against my very will I
itched to share the fearful secret, "I got t'."

"Oh, why?" I still protested.

"I been there!" said she.

'Twas quite enough to entice me beyond my power: after that, I kept
watch, all in a shiver of dread, for some signal; and when she had swept
her father's shorn hair from the floor, and when my sister had gone with
Tom Tot's wife to put the swarm of little Tots to bed, and when Tom Tot
had entered upon a minute description of the sin at Wayfarer's Tickle,
from which his daughter, fearing sudden death and damnation, had fled,
Mary beckoned me to follow: which I did. Without, in the breathless,
moonlit night, I found her waiting in a shadow; and she caught me by the
wrist, clutching it cruelly, and led me to the deeper shadow and
seclusion of a great rock, rising from the path to the flake. 'Twas very
still and awesome, there in the dark of that black rock, with the light
of the moon lying ghostly white on all the barren world, and the long,
low howl of some forsaken dog from time to time disturbing the solemn
silence.

I was afraid.

"Davy, lad," she whispered, bending close, so that she could look into
my eyes, which wavered, "is you li