pocket. He tried
still to feel that his life had been blighted by Ruth. But he could not.
The twelve pounds, largely in silver, weighed so heavy in his pocket. He
said to himself: "Of course this can't last!"

IV

Then came the day when he first heard some one saying discreetly behind
him:

"That's the lifeboat chap!"

Or more briefly:

"That's him!"

Implying that in all Llandudno "him" could mean only one person.

And for a time he went about the streets self-consciously. However, that
self-consciousness soon passed off, and he wore his fame as easily as he
wore his collar.

The lifeboat trips to the _Hjalmar_ became a feature of daily life
in Llandudno. The pronunciation of the ship's name went through a
troublous period. Some said the "j" ought to be pronounced to the
exclusion of the "h," and others maintained the contrary. In the end the
first two letters were both abandoned utterly, also the last--but nobody
had ever paid any attention to the last. The facetious had a trick of
calling the wreck _Inkerman_. This definite settlement of the
pronunciation of the name was a sign that the pleasure-seekers of
Llandudno had definitely fallen in love with the lifeboat-trip habit.
Denry's timid fear that the phenomenon which put money into his pocket
could not continue, was quite falsified. It continued violently. And
Denry wished that the _Hjalmar_ had been wrecked a month earlier.
He calculated that the tardiness of the _Hjalmar_ in wrecking
itself had involved him in a loss of some four hundred pounds. If only
the catastrophe had happened early in July, instead of early in August,
and he had been there. Why, if forty _Hjalmars_ had been wrecked,
and their forty crews saved by forty different lifeboats, and Denry had
bought all the lifeboats, he could have filled them all!

Still, the regularity of his receipts was extremely satisfactory and
comforting. The thing had somehow the air of being a miracle; at any
rate of being connected with magic. It seemed to him that nothing could
have stopped the visitors to Llandudno from fighting for places in his
lifeboat and paying handsomely for the privilege. They had begun the
practice, and they looked as if they meant to go on with the practice
eternally. He thought that the monotony of it would strike them
unfavourably. But no! He thought that they would revolt against doing
what every one had done. But no! Hundreds of persons arrived fresh from
the railway stati