n the deep night, the foam of breakers at Prestatyn.
And when the train reached Llandudno, those two girls in ulsters and
caps greeted him with wondrous tales of the storm at sea, and of wrecks,
and of lifeboats. And they were so jolly, and so welcoming, so plainly
glad to see their cavalier again, that Denry instantly discovered
himself to be in the highest spirits. He put away the dark and brooding
thoughts which had disfigured his journey, and became the gay Denry of
his own dreams. The very wind intoxicated him. There was no rain.

It was half-past nine, and half Llandudno was afoot on the Parade and
discussing the storm--a storm unparalleled, it seemed, in the month of
August. At any rate, people who had visited Llandudno yearly for
twenty-five years declared that never had they witnessed such a storm.
The new lifeboat had gone forth, amid cheers, about six o'clock to a
schooner in distress near Rhos, and at eight o'clock a second lifeboat
(an old one which the new one had replaced and which had been bought for
a floating warehouse by an aged fisherman) had departed to the rescue of
a Norwegian barque, the _Hjalmar_, round the bend of the Little
Orme.

"Let's go on the pier," said Denry. "It will be splendid."

He was not an hour in the town, and yet was already hanging expense!

"They've closed the pier," the girls told him.

But when in the course of their meanderings among the excited crowd
under the gas-lamps they arrived at the pier-gates, Denry perceived
figures on the pier.

"They're sailors and things, and the Mayor," the girls explained.

"Pooh!" said Denry, fired.

He approached the turnstile and handed a card to the official. It was
the card of an advertisement agent of the _Staffordshire Signal_,
who had called at Brougham Street in Denry's absence about the renewal
of Denry's advertisement.

"Press," said Denry to the guardian at the turnstile, and went through
with the ease of a bird on the wing.

"Come along," he cried to the girls.

The guardian seemed to hesitate.

"These ladies are with me," he said.

The guardian yielded.

It was a triumph for Denry. He could read his triumph in the eyes of his
companions. When she looked at him like that, Ruth was assuredly
marvellous among women, and any ideas derogatory to her marvellousness
which he might have had at Bursley and in the train were false ideas.

At the head of the pier beyond the pavilion, there were gathered
together some fi