Mr Gaffin," answered Jacob,
firmly, hurrying on.

The smuggler folded his arms and stood watching the young man as he
trudged sturdily over the sands. "I will win him over yet, though his
father may be too obstinate to move," he muttered to himself as he made
his way up the cliff to the mill.

Jacob carried his basket of shells to Downside and deposited them with
Susan, for the ladies were at tea, and they did not hear of his coming.
She spoke of the visit Mr Harry Castleton had just paid.

"Such a nice gentleman," she observed. "The ladies kept him here all
the afternoon helping Miss May to work at the grotto. And I have a
notion that he was very well pleased to be so employed. I should not be
surprised but what he will be back here again before long," she added.

Jacob did not stop to hear more, but, emptying his basket of shells,
hurried home. What he had heard did not contribute to raise his
spirits. He at once told his father of his meeting with Miles Gaffin.

"If you care for me or for your own happiness, don't have anything to
say to him," said Adam, earnestly. "He bears none of us any love, and
depend on't he means mischief."

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.

MAKING THE GROTTO.

Harry had paid several visits to Downside. The old ladies welcomed him
cordially, and were much pleased at the interest he took in their
grotto.

"It got on rapidly," they observed, with the assistance he so kindly
gave May. She received him as a relative of the ladies without
supposing that had she not been his fellow-labourer he might not have
taken so great an interest in the work. Frequently Miss Jane and Miss
Mary were present, but sometimes they sent May and Harry by themselves,
and only followed when at leisure. Those moments were very delightful
to the young people. They did not perhaps hurry on with the grotto as
fast as they might otherwise have done, and when the ladies arrived they
had not always made much progress. Yet Harry believed that he said
nothing to May which he would not have been willing for his cousins to
hear, and probably had he been accused of making love to the fisherman's
daughter, he would indignantly have denied that he was doing so. She
did not stop to enquire why she felt unusually dull when he did not
come, or why her ear was so eagerly on the watch for the sound of his
horse's hoofs at the hour he generally arrived.

Every day Harry fancied that he had discovered new graces in her min