the wharf to count the sailors, and learn
if they have all come home. Will you go, Ben?"

He complied, and I was left alone.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

When Ben left Surrey, I sent no message or letter by him, and he asked
for none. But at once I wrote to Desmond, and did not finish my letter
till after midnight. Intoxicated with the liberty my pen offered me,
I roamed over a wide field of paper. The next morning I burnt it. But
there was something to be said to him before his departure, and again
I wrote. I might have condensed still more. In this way--

VESTIGIA RETRORSUM.

CHARLES MORGESON.

When the answer came I reflected before I read it, that it might be
the last link of the chain between us. Not a bright one at the best,
nor garlanded with flowers, nor was it metal, silver, or gold. There
was rust on it, it was corroded, for it was forged out of his and my
substance.

I read it: "I am yours, as I have been, since the night I asked you
'How came those scars?' Did you guess that I read your story? I go
from you with one idea; I love you, and I _must_ go. Brave woman! you
have shamed me to death almost."

He sent me a watch. I was to wear it from the second of July. It was
small and plain, but there were a few words scratched inside the case
with the point of a knife, which I read every day. Veronica's eye fell
on it the first time I put it on.

"What time is it?"

"Near one."

"I thought, from the look of it, that it might be near two."

"Don't mar my ideal of you, Verry, by growing witty."

She shrugged her shoulders. "I guess you found it washed ashore, among
the rocks; was it bruised?"

"A man gave it to me."

"A merman, who fills the sea-halls with a voice of power?"

"May be."

"Tut, Ben gave it to you. It is a kind of housekeepish present; did he
add scissors and needle-case?"

"What if the merman should take me some day to the 'pale sea-groves
straight and high?'"

"You must never, never go. You cannot leave me, Cass!" She grasped my
sleeve, and pulled me round. "How much was there for you to do in the
life before us, which you talked about?"

"I remember. There is much, to be sure."

Fanny's quick eye caught the glitter of the watch. The mystery teased
her, but she said nothing.

Aunt Merce had gone to Rosville with Arthur. There was no visitor with
us; there had been none beside Ben since mother died. All seemed kept
at bay. I wrote to Helen to come and pass the summ