tte was vanquished, and Beth made her lie
down on the bed. As she dropped off she saw Beth sitting rigidly at
the open window; when she awoke it was bright daylight, and Beth was
still there in exactly the same attitude.

"Beth," she exclaimed, "you are superhuman!"

"Ah!" said Beth, with a mysterious smile, "when you have learnt to
listen to the whispers of the night, and know what they signify as I
do, you will not wonder. Marvellous things have been happening while
you slept."

"O Beth!" said Charlotte reproachfully, "why didn't you wake me?"

"I was forbidden," Beth answered sadly. "But now watch for me. It is
your turn, and I must sleep. A yachtsman or a man-of-war's man with
bare feet, remember."

Beth curled herself up on the bed, and Charlotte, very weary and
aching all over, but sternly determined to do her duty, took her place
in the window. She had her reward, however, and when Beth awoke she
found her all on the alert, for she had seen the yachtsman. He came up
the street and hung about a little, pretending to look at the shops,
then walked away briskly, which showed Charlotte that the plot was
thickening, and greatly excited her. Beth smiled and nodded as though
well satisfied when she heard the news, but preserved an enigmatical
silence.

Then Charlotte went downstairs and smuggled her up such a good
breakfast--fried ham, boiled eggs, hot rolls with plenty of butter,
and delicious coffee--that the famishing Beth was fain to exclaim with
genuine enthusiasm--

"In spite of all the difficulty, danger, and privation we have to
endure in the Secret Service of Humanity, Charlotte, is there anything
to equal the delight of it?"

And Charlotte solemnly asseverated that there was not.

Much stimulated by her breakfast, Beth took leave of Charlotte. She
must be alone, she said, she had much to think about. She went to the
farther shore to be away from everybody. She wanted to hear what the
little waves were saying to the sand as they rippled over it. It was
another grey day, close and still, and the murmur of the calm sea
threw her at once into a dreamy state, full of pleasurable excitement.
She hid herself in a spot most soothing from its apparent remoteness,
a sandy cove from which, because of the projecting cliffs on either
hand, neither town nor coast could be seen, but only the sea and sky.
Although the grey was uniform enough to make it impossible to tell
where cloud met water on the horizon, it wa