re very good to me, Hoddy."

Something reached down into his heart and twisted it. But he held
the smile until she turned away from the curtain. He dressed
mechanically; so many moves this way, so many moves that. The
evening breeze came; the bamboo shades on the veranda clicked and
rasped; the loose edges of the manuscript curled. To prevent the
leaves from blowing about, should a blow develop, he distributed
paper weights. Still unconscious of anything he did physically.

He tried not to think--of Ruth with her mother's locket, of her
misguided father, taking his lonely way to sea. He drew
compellingly upon his new characters to keep him out of this
melancholy channel; but they ebbed and ebbed; he could not hold
them. Enschede: no human emotion should ever again shuttle between
him and God. As if God would not continue to mock him so long as
his brain held a human thought! God had given him a pearl without
price, and he had misunderstood until this day.

McClintock was in a gay mood at dinner that night; but he did not
see fit to give these children the true reason. For a long time
there had been a standing offer from the company at Copeley's to
take over the McClintock plantation; and to-day he had decided to
sell. Why? Because he knew that when these two young people left,
the island would become intolerable. For nearly thirty years he had
lived here in contented loneliness; then youth had to come and fill
him with discontent.

He would give _The Tigress_ a triple coat of paint, and take these
two on a long cruise, wherever they wanted to go--Roundhead and
Seraph, the blunderbus and the flaming angel. And there was another
matter. To have sprung this upon them to-night would have been worth
a thousand pounds. But his lips were honour-locked.

There was a pint of champagne and a quart of mineral water (both
taboo) at his elbow. In a tall glass the rind of a Syrian orange
was arranged in spiral form. The wine bubbled and seethed; and the
exquisite bouquet of oranges permeated the room.

"I sha'n't offer any of these to you two," he said; "but I know you
won't mind me having an imitation king's peg. The occasion is worth
a dash of the grape, lad. You're on the way to big things. A
thousand dollars is a lot of money for an author to earn."

Spurlock laughed. "Drink your peg; don't bother about me. I
wouldn't touch the stuff for all the pearls in India. A cup of
lies. I know all about it."

Ruth's eyes began t