,
even Melvyna having given up the point, tacitly submitting to loitering
she could not prevent, but recompensing herself by a general cleaning on
those days of the entire premises, from the top of the lantern in the
tower to the last step in front of the house.

You could not argue with Pedro. He only smiled back upon you as sweetly
and as softly as molasses. Melvyna, endeavoring to urge him to energy,
found herself in the position of an active ant wading through the downy
recesses of a feather bed, which well represented his mind.

Pedro was six feet two inches in height, and amiable as a dove. His wife
sensibly accepted him as he was, and he had his two days in town--a very
mild dissipation, however, since the Minorcans are too indolent to do
anything more than smoke, lie in the sun, and eat salads heavily dressed
in oil. They said, "The serene and august wife of our friend is well, we
trust?" and, "The island--does it not remain lonely?" and then the
salad was pressed upon him again. For they all considered Pedro a man of
strange and varied experiences. Had he not married a woman of wonder--of
an energy unfathomable? And he lived with her alone in a lighthouse, on
an island; alone, mind you, without a friend or relation near!

The six feet that walked over the beautiful beach of the southern ocean
were those of Keith, Carrington, and Sister St. Luke.

"Now go, Miss Luke," Melvyna had said, waving her energetically away
with the skimmer as she stood irresolute at the kitchen door. "'Twill do
you a power of good, and they're nice, quiet gentlemen who will see to
you, and make things pleasant. Bless you, _I_ know what they are. They
ain't none of the miserable, good-for-nothing race about here! Your
convent is fifty miles off, ain't it? And besides, you were brought over
here half dead for me to cure up--now, warn't you?"

The Sister acknowledged that she was, and Melvyna went on:

"You see, things is different up North, and I understand 'em, but you
don't. Now you jest go right along and hev a pleasant walk, and I'll hev
a nice bowl of venison broth ready for you when you come back. Go right
along now." The skimmer waved again, and the Sister went.

"Yes, she's taken the veil, and is a nun for good and all," explained
Melvyna to her new guests the evening of their arrival, when the shy
little Sister had retreated to her own room above. "They thought she was
dying, and she was so long about it, and useless on the