a refreshment to Elizabeth to be with Sir Temple and Lady
Dacre; that morning it was even better than being alone; they were the
only ones purely spectators in the drama of struggle and suffering going
on under the courtesies that were its scenic accompaniments. When they
talked and jested it was out of happy hearts, at least so far as the
things about them were concerned, and for this reason the strain was
taken from her in their presence. She had only to be gay enough,
and there was no need of watching her words lest they should be
misconstrued. If she had been asked why anything that she said or did
was liable to be misconstrued, she could not have told. This was her
feeling, but she did not see her way; no flash of the electric storm
that the blackness foreboded had yet shown her where she stood; but the
elemental conditions affected her.

The boat on its return had landed Madam Archdale and her guests on the
pebbly beach at Seascape, not far from the house. They had said farewell
and sauntered up the path toward it and disappeared. The boat was about
putting out again when a man came running up to the Colonel, and begged
him to wait to speak with the Captain of a schooner standing out about
half a mile. The Captain had come ashore on purpose to see him and was a
little way down the beach now hurrying toward him. The business was
urgent.

"Go back without me," the Colonel said. "I may be kept here for some
time." But Elizabeth had had enough of sailing for that day; she was
already on shore and said that she would rather walk home. As Pepperell
left her with an apology she walked on a few rods, and stopped to speak
to a fisherman cleaning his boat. She had seen him at the house and had
heard that he had lost his child the week before. As she turned from him
she went on slowly until she came to where a boulder towered over her
head and seemed to bar her progress except along the shore. She knew the
zigzag way that wound about its base and led her into the straight path
again which would take her across the grounds of Seascape and bring her
into the road not far from Colonel Pepperell's home. But before she had
time to enter this way, voices on the other side of the boulder startled
her. Her first thought was that Lady Dacre and her husband had come
back. But she perceived that the tones were Bulchester's. She stood
still an instant, wishing that she could reach the road without being
obliged to talk to him or any o