med to sweep through it, and then they could distinguish the lights
which the steamer was now burning at the mast head, and guess how far
distant that still was. But these lights seemed at last to be almost
close at hand; and the boat, which had been at first so much before the
steamer, ought to be quite near also. It might be even now passing the
place where they were, on its way to the village at the further end of
the island.

Mr. Strafford reminded Mrs. Costello of this, and proposed that they
should start on their return.

"If we delay much longer," he said, "it will be quite dark, and besides,
the paths are getting every moment more choked up."

She rose instantly.

"I beg your pardon," she said, "I ought to have thought;" but still, as
she fastened her cloak, she continued to keep her eyes fixed upon the
veil of fog which hung between her and the river.

Mr. Strafford and Lucia both stopped to say a few words to Sunflower,
who was still busy with her cakes, but Mrs. Costello never ceased to
look out until she was obliged to follow the others from the house. The
air was bitterly cold; and, hastened by storm and mist, the night was
coming on fast. They paused for a moment outside the wicket; and Mrs.
Costello, looking at Mr. Strafford with a consciousness that her wish
was foolish and unreasonable, said--

"I should like to go down quite to the shore, just for a moment, to try
if I can see anything."

He turned instantly and walked with her to the very extremity of the
little point, Lucia following.

They stood exactly on the spot where she had landed as a bride, and
looked out into the darkness. Suddenly she grasped Mr. Strafford's arm.

"Listen!" she said, "there are oars close by."

"Impossible," he answered. "See, the steamer's lights are just there
opposite us. It must be turning round to go into Claremont."

But she bent her head forward listening. For even through the beat of
the paddles, which she could now distinguish plainly, it still seemed
that she heard the sound of oars, and she thought,

"They have given up trying to use their sails, and taken to rowing."

Suddenly a current of wind passing along the surface of the water lifted
the fog. Just to their right, towering high in the air and holding a
swift, steady course, came the steamer; but in front of it, scarcely a
dozen yards from its huge bulk, lay the little boat. In that moment, as
the fog rose and showed the danger, a single cry o