ther star, that shone out
from the Manor woods above the village, although I could not see the
house, and told me Grace, like the wise virgins, kept her lamp alight all
night. Yet even that light shone without lustre for me then, for my heart
was too full to think of anything but of him who had laid down his life
for mine, and of the strong kind heart that was stilled for ever.

'Twas well I knew the way, so sure of old, from Why Not? to beach; for I
took no heed to path or feet, but plunged along in the morning dusk,
blind with sorrow and weariness of spirit. There was a fire of driftwood
burning at the back of the beach, and round it crouched a group of men
in reefing jackets and sou'westers waiting for morning to save what they
might from the wreck; but I gave them a wide berth and so passed in the
darkness without a word, and came to the top of the beach. There was
light enough to make out what was doing. The sea was running very high,
but with the falling wind the waves came in more leisurely and with less
of broken water, curling over in a tawny sweep and regular thunderous
beat all along the bay for miles. There was no sign left of the hull of
the _Aurungzebe_, but the beach was strewn with so much wreckage as one
would have thought could never come from so small a ship. There were
barrels and kegs, gratings and hatch-covers, booms and pieces of masts
and trucks; and beside all that, the heaving water in-shore was covered
with a floating mask of broken match-wood, and the waves, as they curled
over, carried up and dashed down on the pebble planks and beams beyond
number. There were a dozen or more of men on the seaward side of the
beach, with oilskins to keep the wet out, prowling up and down the
pebbles to see what they could lay their hands on; and now and then they
would run down almost into the white fringe, risking their lives to save
a keg as they had risked them to save their fellows last night--as they
had risked their lives to save ours, as Elzevir had risked his life to
save mine, and lost it there in the white fringe.

I sat down at the top of the beach, with elbows on knees, head between
hands, and face set out to sea, not knowing well why I was there or what
I sought, but only thinking that Elzevir was floating somewhere in that
floating skin of wreck-wood, and that I must be at hand to meet him when
he came ashore. He would surely come in time, for I had seen others come
ashore that way. For when th