fear. "There's no such
thing as love," she said bitterly. "You dress it up and call it that.
But all the time it's something quite different. And I tell you
this"--recklessly she flung the words--"that if it hadn't been for that
tidal wave I'd be just what you took me for that night, what Aunt Liza
thinks I am this minute. I wasn't keeping back--anything, and"--she
uttered a sudden wild laugh--"if I've kept my virtue, I've lost my
innocence. I know--I know now--just what the thing you call love is
worth! And nothing will ever make me forget it!"

She stopped, quivering from head to foot, passionate protest in every
line.

But the blue eyes that watched her never wavered. The man's face was
rock-like in its steadfast calm. He did not speak for a full minute
after the utterance of her wild words. Then very steadily, very
forcibly, he answered her. "I'll tell you, shall I, what the thing I
call love is like?" He turned with a sweep of the arm and pointed out to
the harbour beyond the quay. "It's just like that. It's a wall to keep
off the storms. It's a safe haven where nothing hurtful can reach you.
You're not bound to give yourself to it, but once given you're safe."

"Not bound!" Sharply she broke in upon him. "Not bound--when you made me
promise--"

He dropped his arm to his side. "I set you free from that promise," he
said.

Those few words, sombrely spoken, checked her wild outburst as surely as
a hand upon her mouth. She stood gazing at him for a space in utter
amazement, but gradually under his unchanging regard her look began to
fail. She turned at length with a little gasp, and sat down on the old
horsehair sofa, huddling herself together as if she desired to withdraw
herself from his observation.

He did not stir, and a long, long silence fell between them, broken
only by the ticking of the grandfather-clock in the corner and the
everlasting murmur of the sea.

The deep, warning note of the bell-buoy floated presently through the
summer silence, and as if in answer to a voice Rufus moved at last and
spoke. "You'd better go, lass. They'll be wondering about you. But don't
be afraid of me after this! I swear--before God--I'll give you no
cause!"

She started a little at the sound of his voice, but she made no movement
to go. Her face was hidden in her hands. She rocked herself to and fro,
to and fro, as if in pain.

He stood looking down at her with troubled eyes, but after a while, as
she did not spe