y the wrist, and laid
it on her own bare arm. He felt the flesh, but it was firm and warm.
Then he withdrew his hand hastily, without finding anything to say.
His eyes avoided hers. When, after half a minute, he looked at her
again, her gaze was fixed straight ahead, upon the misty stretch of sea
beyond the harbour's mouth.

In a minute or two they were gliding out between the tall cliff and the
reef of rocks that guard this entrance on either side. On the reef
stood a wooden cross, painted white, warning vessels to give a wide
berth; on the cliff a grey castle, with a battery before it, under the
guns of which they spun seaward, still with the wind astern.

Outside, the sea lay as smooth as within the harbour. The wind blew
steadily off the shore, so that, close-hauled, one might fetch up or
down Channel with equal ease. The girl began to flatten the sails, and
asked her companion to bear a hand. Their hands met over a rope, and
the man noted with surprise that the girl's was feverishly hot.
Then she brought the boat's nose round to the eastward and, heeling
gently over the dark water, they began to skirt the misty coast with the
breeze on their left cheeks.

"How much farther?" asked the minister.

She nodded towards the first point in the direction of Plymouth.
He turned his coat-collar up about his ears and wondered if his duty
would often take him on such journeys as this. Also he felt thankful
that the sea was smooth. He might, or might not, be given to
sea-sickness: but somehow he was sincerely glad that he had not to be
put to the test for the first time in this girl's presence.

They passed the small headland and still the boat held on its way.

"I had no idea you were going to take me this distance. Didn't you
promise me the house lay just beyond the point we've just passed?"

To his amazement the girl drew herself up, looked him straight in the
face and said--

"There's no such place."

"_What?_"

"There's no such place. There's nobody ill at all. I told you a lie."

"You told me a lie--then why in the name of common sense am I here?"

"Because, young man--because, sir, I'm sick o' love for you, an' I
want'ee to marry me."

"Great heaven!" the young minister muttered, recoiling. "Is the girl
mad?"

"Ah, but look at me, sir!" She seemed to grow still taller as she stood
there, resting one hand on the tiller and gazing at him with perfectly
serious eyes. "Look at me well before y