waited. She was waiting for
something that did not happen, for some one who did not come.

Suddenly she sat up on her rock. The sun was sinking behind her, the
silver sea shone iridescent, the tide had turned. But where were the
boys? She looked about her. Out on the sands beyond the rocks on her
right, a man was wading in the water with a net, shrimping. Close at
hand another was gathering mussels for bait, and a gentleman was
walking towards her over the slippery rocks, balancing himself as
though he found it difficult to keep his feet; but these were the only
people in sight. The gentleman was a stranger. He wore a dark-blue
suit, with a shirt of wonderful whiteness, and Beth could not help
noticing how altogether well-dressed he was--too well-dressed for
climbing on the rocks. She noticed his dress particularly, because
well-dressed men were rare in Rainharbour. He was tall, with glossy
black hair inclining to curl, slight whiskers and moustache, blue
eyes, and a bright complexion. A woman with as much colour would have
been accused of painting; in him it gave to some people the idea of
superabundant health, to others it suggested a phthisical tendency.
Beth looked at him as he approached as she looked at everybody and
everything with interest--nothing escaped her; but he made no great
impression upon her. She thought of him principally as a man with a
watch; and when he was near enough she asked him what time it was. He
told her, looking hard at her, and smiling pleasantly as he returned
his watch to his pocket. She noticed that his teeth were good, but too
far apart, a defect which struck her as unpleasant.

"Why, it is quite late!" she exclaimed, forgetting to thank him in her
surprise.

"Are you all alone here?" he asked.

"I was waiting for some friends," she answered, "but they have not
come. They must have been detained."

She began to walk back as she spoke, and the gentleman turned too
perforce, for the tide was close upon them.

"Let me help you," he said, holding out his hand, which was noticeably
white and well-shaped; "the rocks are rough and slippery."

"I can manage, thank you," Beth answered. "I am accustomed to them."

Beth involuntarily resolved herself into a young lady the moment she
addressed this man, and spoke now with the self-possession of one
accustomed to courtesies. Even at that age her soft cultivated voice
and easy assurance of manner, and above all her laugh, which was not
th