l around the rock in father's boat," continued
Cara, with importance. "That's the best way to see 'em, and folks from
Frisco sometimes takes a sail out there just on purpose,--it's too sandy
to walk or drive there. But it's only a step from here. Look here!" she
said suddenly, and frankly opening her fine eyes upon him. "I'm going
to take Lucy there to-morrow, and I'll show you." Jarman felt his cheeks
flush quickly with a pleasure that embarrassed him. "It won't take
long," added Cara, mistaking his momentary hesitation, "and you can
leave your telegraph alone. Nobody will be there, so no one will see you
and nobody know it."

He would have gone then, anyway, he knew, yet in his absurd
self-consciousness he was glad that her last suggestion had relieved him
of a sense of reckless compliance. He assented eagerly, when with a wave
of her hand, a flash of her white teeth, and the same abruptness she had
shown at their last parting, she caught Lucy by the arm and darted away
in a romping race to her dwelling. Jarman started after her. He had
not wanted to go to her father's house particularly, but why was SHE
evidently as averse to it? With the subtle pleasure that this admission
gave him there was a faint stirring of suspicion.

It was gone when he found her and Lucy the next morning, radiant with
the sunshine, before his door. The restraint of their previous meetings
had been removed in some mysterious way, and they chatted gayly as they
walked towards the cliffs. She asked him frankly many questions about
himself, why he had come there, and if he "wasn't lonely;" she answered
frankly--I fear much more frankly than he answered her--the many
questions he asked her about herself and her friends. When they reached
the cliffs they descended to the beach, which they found deserted.
Before them--it seemed scarce a pistol shot from the shore arose a high,
broad rock, beaten at its base by the long Pacific surf, on which a
number of shapeless animals were uncouthly disporting. This was Seal
Rock, the goal of their journey.

Yet after a few moments they no longer looked at it, but seated on the
sand, with Lucy gathering shells at the water's edge, they continued
their talk. Presently the talk became eager confidences, and
then,--there were long and dangerous lapses of silence, when both were
fain to make perfunctory talk with Lucy on the beach. After one of those
silences Jarman said:--

"Do you know I rather thought yesterda