ontory of the Nothe, and swept forward
into the harbour.

'What boat is that?' said Anne.

'It seems to be some frigate lying in the Roads,' said Bob carelessly, as
he brought Anne round with a gentle pressure of his arm and bent his
steps towards the homeward end of the town.

Meanwhile, Miss Johnson, having finished her duties for that evening,
rapidly changed her dress, and went out likewise. The prominent position
which Anne and Captain Bob had occupied side by side in the theatre, left
her no alternative but to suppose that the situation was arranged by Bob
as a species of defiance to herself; and her heart, such as it was,
became proportionately embittered against him. In spite of the rise in
her fortunes, Miss Johnson still remembered--and always would
remember--her humiliating departure from Overcombe; and it had been to
her even a more grievous thing that Bob had acquiesced in his brother's
ruling than that John had determined it. At the time of setting out she
was sustained by a firm faith that Bob would follow her, and nullify his
brother's scheme; but though she waited Bob never came.

She passed along by the houses facing the sea, and scanned the shore, the
footway, and the open road close to her, which, illuminated by the
slanting moon to a great brightness, sparkled with minute facets of
crystallized salts from the water sprinkled there during the day. The
promenaders at the further edge appeared in dark profiles; and beyond
them was the grey sea, parted into two masses by the tapering braid of
moonlight across the waves.

Two forms crossed this line at a startling nearness to her; she marked
them at once as Anne and Bob Loveday. They were walking slowly, and in
the earnestness of their discourse were oblivious of the presence of any
human beings save themselves. Matilda stood motionless till they had
passed.

'How I love them!' she said, treading the initial step of her walk
onwards with a vehemence that walking did not demand.

'So do I--especially one,' said a voice at her elbow; and a man wheeled
round her, and looked in her face, which had been fully exposed to the
moon.

'You--who are you?' she asked.

'Don't you remember, ma'am? We walked some way together towards
Overcombe earlier in the summer.' Matilda looked more closely, and
perceived that the speaker was Derriman, in plain clothes. He continued,
'You are one of the ladies of the theatre, I know. May I ask why you
said in