see me."

"I am not glad to see you. You have no right to come here. But I knew
you would come."

"You knew it? How?"

"Your eyes told me so today. I am not blind--I can see further than
those dull fisher folks. Yes, I knew you would come. That is why I
came here tonight--so that you would find me alone and I could tell
you that you were not to come again."

"Why must you tell me that, Magdalen?"

"Because, as I have told you, you have no right to come."

"But if I will not obey you? If I will come in defiance of your
prohibition?"

She turned her steady luminous eyes on his pale, set face.

"You would stamp yourself as a madman, then," she said coldly. "I know
that you are Miss Lesley's promised husband. Therefore, you are either
false to her or insulting to me. In either case the companionship of
Magdalen Crawford is not what you must seek. Go!"

She turned away from him with an imperious gesture of dismissal.
Esterbrook Elliott stepped forward and caught one firm, white wrist.

"I shall not obey you," he said in a low, intense tone; his fine eyes
burned into hers. "You may send me away, but I will come back, again
and yet again until you have learned to welcome me. Why should you
meet me like an enemy? Why can we not be friends?"

The girl faced him once more.

"Because," she said proudly, "I am not your equal. There can be no
friendship between us. There ought not to be. Magdalen Crawford, the
fisherman's niece, is no companion for you. You will be foolish, as
well as disloyal, if you ever try to see me again. Go back to the
beautiful, high-bred woman you love and forget me. Perhaps you think I
am talking strangely. Perhaps you think me bold and unwomanly to speak
so plainly to you, a stranger. But there are some circumstances in
life when plain-speaking is best. I do not want to see you again. Now,
go back to your own world."

Esterbrook Elliott slowly turned from her and walked in silence back
to the shore. In the shadows of the point he stopped to look back at
her, standing out like some inspired prophetess against the fiery
background of the sunset sky and silver-blue water. The sky overhead
was thick-sown with stars; the night breeze was blowing up from its
lair in distant, echoing sea caves. On his right the lights of the
Cove twinkled out through the dusk.

"I feel like a coward and a traitor," he said slowly. "Good God, what
is this madness that has come over me? Is this my boasted strength