p in a moment, her face alight with eagerness, but some instinct
stopped her from expressing too much delight. In the softened feeling
which had crept into her heart, she realised that to her grandmother the
move would mean a great wrench.

"She must love Hillside as much, or _nearly_ as much as I love Seacombe,"
she told herself. Aloud she said, "I'd like it, but you wouldn't, would
you, granny?"

"I think I would. I'd like to be nearer your father, and--and you would
be happy there, and perhaps you'd feel stronger. I'm getting to feel,"
she added after a little pause, "that one can be happy anywhere, if those
about one are happy. Or, to put it another way, one can't be happy
anywhere if those about one ain't happy."

Mona felt very guilty. "Granny," she said, but in rather a choky voice,
"I'll be happy here, if you'd rather stay here--I will really. I do love
Hillside--it's only the sea I miss, and the fun, and--and the excitement
when the boats come in--but I shall forget all about it soon, and I'll be
happy here too, if you'd like to stay."

She did try to put aside her own feelings, and speak cheerfully, and she
succeeded--but, to her surprise, her grandmother did not jump at her
offer.

"No, child, I wouldn't rather stay. I'd like to go. I feel I want to be
near my own, and your father and you are all I've got. I think I'll ask
him if he can find a little house that'll suit us."

"Won't you live with us, granny? You can have my room."

But granny would not hear of that. "I've always had a home of my own, and
I couldn't live in anybody else's," she said decisively. "Your
stepmother's too much of an invalid herself too, to be able to look after
another."

"Then you'd want me to live with you?" asked Mona, with a little break in
her voice. She was disappointed, but she tried not to show it.

"Yes, dearie," her eyes scanning Mona's face wistfully, "wouldn't you like
that?"

Mona hesitated for only a second, then "Yes, granny, I should," she said,
and then as the idea became more familiar, she said more heartily,
"Yes, I'd love to, and oh, granny, if we could only get one of the little
houses down by the Quay it would be lovely! I'm sure you'd like it----"

"I couldn't live down by the Quay," granny interrupted sharply,
"I wouldn't live there if a house was given me rent free. It is too
noisy, for one thing, and you feel every breath of wind that blows."

"But you're close, when the boats c