moments, sobbing. "You must go away, and I must go away," she
said, amid her tears: "nothing is the same any more. Father is dead, and
the whole world will be between us. Nothing is the same any more.
Nothing is the same."

"Distance is nothing nowadays," said the youth, soothing her; "I can
reach you in almost no time, Annet."

"Yes, but nothing is the same any more; nothing ever will be the same
ever again," she sobbed, oppressed for the first time in her life by the
vague uncertainties of the future.

"Oh yes, it will," said her companion, decidedly. "I will come back here
if you wish it so much, and you shall come back, and we will live here
on this same old island all our lives. A man has but to choose his home,
you know."

Anne looked somewhat comforted. Yet only part of her responded to his
words; she still felt that nothing would ever be quite the same again.
She could not bring back her father; she could not bring back their long
happy childhood. The door was closed behind them, and they must now go
out into the wide world.

The second whistle sounded--another fifteen minutes gone. They ran down
the steep path together, meeting Miss Lois on her way up, a green
woollen hood on her head as a protection against the morning air.

"You will want a ring, my dears," she said, breathlessly, as she kissed
them--"an engagement ring; it is the custom, and fortunately I have one
for you."

With a mixture of smiles and tears of delight and excitement, she took
from a little box an old-fashioned ring, and handed it to Rast.

"It was your mother's, dear," she said to Anne; "your father gave it to
me as a memento of her when you were a baby. It is most fit that you
should wear it."

Rast examined the slender little circlet without much admiration. It was
a hoop of very small rubies placed close together, with as little gold
visible as was possible. "I meant to give Annet a diamond," he said,
with the tone of a young duke.

"Oh no, Rast," exclaimed the girl.

"But take this for the present," urged the old maid. "You must not let
her go from you without one; it would be a bad sign. Put it on yourself,
Rast; I want to see you do it."

Rast slipped the circlet into its place on Anne's finger, and then, with
a little flourish which became him well, he uncovered his head, bent his
knee, and raised the hand to his lips.

"But you have put it on the right hand," said Miss Lois, in dismay.

"It does not make any diff