ong story. Mr. Granger and Miss Granger
were away from home, and would not be back for another two hours. Miss
Beatrice had gone out yesterday afternoon, and had not come back to tea.
She, Betty, had not thought much of it, believing that she had stopped
to spend the evening somewhere, and, being very tired, had gone to bed
about eight, leaving the door unlocked. This morning, when she woke, it
was to find that Miss Beatrice had not slept in the house that night,
and she came out to see if she could find her.

"Where was she going when she went out?" Geoffrey asked.

She did not know, but she thought that Miss Beatrice was going out in
the canoe. Leastways she had put on her tennis shoes, which she always
wore when she went out boating.

Geoffrey understood it all now. "Come to the boat-house," he said.

They went down to the beach, where as yet none were about except a few
working people. Near the boat-house Geoffrey met old Edward walking
along with a key in his hand.

"Lord, sir!" he said. "You here, sir! and in that there queer hat, too.
What is it, sir?"

"Did Miss Beatrice go out in her canoe yesterday evening, Edward?"
Geoffrey asked hoarsely.

"No, sir; not as I know on. My boy locked up the boat-house last
night, and I suppose he looked in it first. What! You don't mean to
say----Stop; we'll soon know. Oh, Goad! the canoe's gone!"

There was a silence, an awful silence. Old Edward broke it.

"She's drowned, sir--that's what she is--drowned at last; and she the
finest woman in Wales. I knewed she would be one day, poor dear! and
she the beauty that she was; and all along of that damned unlucky little
craft. Goad help her! She's drowned, I say----"

Betty burst out into loud weeping at his words.

"Stop that noise, girl," said Geoffrey, turning his pale face towards
her. "Go back to the Vicarage, and if Mr. Granger comes home before I
get back, tell him what we fear. Edward, send some men to search the
shore towards Coed, and some more in a sailing boat. I will walk towards
the Bell Rock--you can follow me."

He started and swiftly tramped along the sands, searching the sea with
his eye. On he walked sullenly, desperately striving to hope against
hope. On, past the Dog Rocks, round the long curve of beach till he came
to the Amphitheatre. The tide was high again; he could barely pass the
projecting point. He was round it, and his heart stood still. For there,
bottom upwards, and gently swaying to an