k, she could not come down here by herself.

"Certainly," he said, never dreaming that she would think of doing
such a thing.

By and by they returned to the hotel, and while they sat at dinner a
great fire of sunset spread over the west, and the far woods became of
a rich purple, streaked here and there with lines of pale white mist.
The river caught the glow of the crimson clouds above, and shone
duskily red amid the dark green of the trees. Deeper and deeper grew
the color of the sun as it sank to the horizon, until it disappeared
behind one low bar of purple cloud, and then the wild glow in the west
slowly faded away, the river became pallid and indistinct, the white
mists over the distant woods seemed to grow denser, and then, as here
and there a lamp was lit far down in the valley, one or two pale stars
appeared in the sky overhead, and the night came on apace.

"It is so strange," Sheila said, "to find the darkness coming on and
not to hear the sound of the waves. I wonder if it is a fine night at
Borva?"

Her husband went over to her and led her back to the table, where the
candles, shining over the white cloth and the colored glasses, offered
a more cheerful picture than the deepening landscape outside. They
were in a private room, so that, when dinner was over, Sheila was
allowed to amuse herself with the fruit, while her two companions lit
their cigars. Where was the quaint old piano now, and the glass of hot
whisky and water, and the "Lament of Monaltrie" or "Love in thine eyes
for ever plays"? It seemed, but for the greatness of the room, to be
a repetition of one of those evenings at Borva that now belonged to
a far-off past. Here was Sheila, not minding the smoke, listening
to Ingram as of old, and sometimes saying something in that sweetly
inflected speech of hers; here was Ingram, talking, as it were, out
of a brown study, and morosely objecting to pretty nearly everything
Lavender said, but always ready to prove Sheila right; and Lavender
himself, as unlike a married man as ever, talking impatiently,
impetuously and wildly, except at such times as he said something to
his young wife, and then some brief smile and look or some pat on the
hand said more than words. But where, Sheila may have thought, was the
one wanting to complete the group? Has he gone down to Borvabost to
see about the cargoes of fish to be sent off in the morning? Perhaps
he is talking to Duncan outside about the cleaning of the