men who had been lost in a September gale
off the fishing banks.
Bettina shivered as she read the carved history.
"Oh, how did the women stand it," she said, "to come here to the top of
this hill, week after week, watching? To wonder and worry and fear. To
wake in the middle of the night and know that their husbands and lovers
were out in the blackness and storm. And then at last to see the boats
coming in, and not know whether the ones they loved were on board--to
find, perhaps, at last, that they were not on board. How did they stand
it?"
"As you would have stood it, if you had been one of them----"
"Would I?" wistfully. "Do you think I could be brave and patient?"
"You could be everything that is good and beautiful----"
She did not smile or blush. All the glamour of their flight had fallen
from her. The old cemetery with its gruesome headstones oppressed her.
The purple shadows of the twilight seemed to circle the world.
She shuddered and one little hand caught at the sleeve of Justin's coat.
He glanced down at her. "My dear one, what is it?"
Her frightened eyes pleaded. "I--I don't like it here. I'm afraid."
"With me--silly. You weren't afraid up there in the clouds."
"This is--different. It seems down here as if the whole world
were--dead----"
"You're tired. Look here, I'm going to carry you up this hill."
As he said it, masterfully, she felt herself swept up into his strong
young arms.
"Put me down!"
He drew his head back to look at her.
"Why?"
"I'll tell you in a minute. Put me down."
He set her on her feet, and she stood there, swaying, her lips parted.
At last she said, "I love you," but held out her hand as if to keep him
from her. "I love you--but I mustn't let you--love me."
"Why not?"
"Because--oh, Justin," she was stripping off her gloves, "oh, I've tried
to hide these," pitifully, "to hide these from you. I wanted my little
moment of happiness, too. But now you've got to know."
The gloves were off, and the last rays of the setting sun, striking the
great jewels, brought fire which seemed to blind Justin's eyes.
He caught her hands in his, roughly. "Who gave them to you?" he
demanded. "Who gave them to you, Bettina?"
But all his doubts and fears had crystallized to certainty before she
whispered, "Anthony."
"Do you mean that you are going to marry--Anthony?"
She nodded. "He loves me, Justin."
"And you love him?"
Her head went up. "I told you j
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