a carriage, one of the
turnouts supplied by the Eastboro livery stable, roll up to its door
and Mrs. Bascom, the housekeeper, emerge, climb to the seat beside the
driver, and be driven away in the direction of the village. He idly
wondered where she was going, but was not particularly interested. When,
a half hour later, Ruth Graham left the bungalow and strolled off along
the path at the top of the bluff, he was very much interested indeed.
He realized, as he had been realizing for weeks, that he was more
interested in that young woman than in anything else on earth. Also,
that he had no right--miserable outcast that he was--to be interested in
her; and certainly it would be the wildest insanity to imagine that she
could be interested in him.

For what the lightkeeper might say or do, in the event of his secret
being discovered, he did not care in the least. He was long past that
point. And for the breaking of their solemn compact he did not care
either. Seth might or might not have played the traitor; that, too, was
a matter of no importance. Seth himself was of no importance; neither
was he. There was but one important person in the whole world, and she
was strolling along the bluff path at that moment. Therefore he left his
seat on the bench, hurried down the slope to the inner end of the cove,
noting absently that the tide of the previous night must have been
unusually high, climbed to the bungalow, turned the corner, and walked
slowly in the direction of the trim figure in the blue suit, which was
walking, even more slowly, just ahead of him.

It may be gathered that John Brown's feelings concerning the opposite
sex had changed. They had, and he had changed in other ways, also. How
much of a change had taken place he did not himself realize, until this
very afternoon. He did not realize it even then until, after he and the
girl in blue had met, and the customary expressions of surprise at their
casual meeting had been exchanged, the young lady seated herself on a
dune overlooking the tumbling sea and observed thoughtfully:

"I shall miss all this"--with a wave of her hand toward the waves--"next
week, when I am back again in the city."

Brown's cap was in his hand as she began to speak. After she had
finished he stooped to pick up the cap, which had fallen to the ground.

"You are going away--next week?" he said slowly.

"We are going to-morrow. I shall remain in Boston for a few days. Then I
shall visit a