ed shine is on the water below!" said
Kate.

"It looks so wet!" returned Alec,--"just like blood."

He almost cursed himself as he said so, for he felt Kate's hand stir as
if she would withdraw it from his arm. But after fluttering like a bird
for a moment, it settled again upon its perch, and there rested.

The day had been quite calm, but now a sudden gust of wind from the
north-east swept across the pier and made Kate shiver. Alec drew her
shawl closer about her, and her arm further within his. They were now
close to the sea. On the other side of the wall which rose on their
left, they could hear the first of the sea-waves. It was a dreary
place--no sound even indicating the neighbourhood of life. On one side,
the river below them went flowing out to the sea in the dark, giving a
cold sluggish gleam now and then, as if it were a huge snake heaving up
a bend of its wet back, as it hurried away to join its fellows; on the
other side rose a great wall of stone, beyond which was the sound of
long waves following in troops out of the dark, and falling upon a low
moaning coast. Clouds hung above the sea; and above the clouds two or
three disconsolate stars.

"Here is a stair," said Alec. "Let us go up on the top of the sea-wall,
and then we shall catch the first glimpse of the light at her funnel."

They climbed the steep rugged steps, and stood on the broad wall,
hearing the sea-pulses lazily fall at its foot. The wave crept away
after it fell, and returned to fall again like a weary hound. There was
hardly any life in the sea. How mournful it was to lie out there, the
wintry night, beneath an all but starless heaven, with the wind vexing
it when it wanted to sleep!

Alec feeling Kate draw a deep breath like the sigh of the sea, looked
round in her face. There was still light enough to show it frowning and
dark and sorrowful and hopeless. It was in fact a spiritual mirror,
which reflected in human forms the look of that weary waste of waters.
She gave a little start, gathered herself together, and murmured
something about the cold.

"Let us go down again," said Alec.--"The wind has risen considerably,
and the wall will shelter us down below."

"No, no," she answered; "I like it. We can walk here just as well. I
don't mind the wind."

"I thought you were afraid of falling off."

"No, not in the dark. I should be, I daresay, if I could see how far we
are from the bottom."

So they walked on. The waves no longe