ld board-ship days. Charlie was talking about them and of all
the fun we had only last Saturday. Yes, I have seen him several times
lately. He has been staying in town, waiting for something to turn up,
he says. Funny boy! He is just as gay as ever. And Captain Fisher, whom
he dragged to my flat to tea, is every bit as heavy and uninteresting,
poor dear!"

"I don't call Captain Fisher uninteresting," remarked Molly. "At least,
I never found him so in the old days."

"My dear, he is heavy as lead!" declared Mrs. Langdale. "I believe he
only opened his mouth once to speak, and then it was to ask for five
lumps of sugar instead of three. A most wearing person to entertain. I
will never have him at my table without Charlie to raise the gloom. He
and Charlie seemed to have decided to join forces for the present. They
spent Christmas together with Captain Fisher's people. I don't know if
they are as sober as he is. If so, poor dear Charlie must have felt
distinctly out of his element. But his spirits are wonderful. I believe
he would make a tombstone laugh."

"It will be nice to see him again," said Molly tolerantly. "It is three
months now since we dispersed."

She made the remark with another thought in her mind. Surely by this
Charlie would have forgotten the folly that had caused her annoyance in
the old days! Constancy was the very last quality with which she
credited him. Or so at least she thought.

She went for a walk on the rocky shore that afternoon, meeting the
steely north-east blast with a good deal of resolution, if scant
enjoyment. Something in the immediate future she found vaguely
disquieting, something connected with Charlie Cleveland.

She did not believe that her estimate of this young man was in any way
wide of the mark. And yet the thought of meeting him again had in it a
disturbing element for which she could not account. It worried her a
good deal that wild afternoon in January. Perhaps a suspicion that she
had once done young Cleveland an injustice strengthened the unwelcome
sense of regret, for it felt like regret in her mind.

Yet as she turned homeward along the windy shore one comforting
reflection came to her and remained with her. She was at least
unfeignedly glad that Captain Fisher was going to be there. She liked
those silent, strong men who did all the hard work and then stood aside
to let the tide of praise and admiration flood past.

Right well did her cousin's description fit thi