e western
sea as they came out on the Eperquerie.

"When are you free, Margaret?" he asked,--the first word since they
kissed in the lane.

"I am twenty-one on New Year's Day."

"Six whole months! How can we possibly wait all that time?"

"Why should we?" she asked delightfully.

"Undoubtedly--why should we?" he said, on fire with her charming
readiness. "You are probably by this time ringed with legal pains and
penalties, but they are all less than nothing."

"What could they do?"

"I believe they clap the male malefactor into prison----"

"I will go with you."

"I'm not sure if there are any married cells."

"And how long would they keep us there?"

"Till, in their opinion, I had purged my contempt, I believe."

"And how long would that be?"

"I've no idea. It probably depends on circumstances. Do you know that,
until Lady Elspeth told me, I had rib idea that you had any money. It
was rather a blow to me."

"I don't see why."

"But I told our old friend that if--well, if, you understand--I should
insist on everything you had being settled on yourself."

"You and Lady Elspeth seem to have discussed matters pretty freely,"
she said, with a laugh.

"She's the dearest old lady in the world, and delights in mothering
me. She got me in a corner that afternoon, and taxed me with coming to
her house for reasons other than simply to see herself----"

"And you----?"

"I had to own up, of course, and then she crushed me by telling me
that you were an heiress, and that Mr. Pixley probably had views of
his own concerning you."

"Which he had, but they happened not to coincide with mine, and so I
came to Sark."

"Happy day! I see you yet, standing in the hedge by the Red House, and
I believing you a vision."

"I could hardly believe my eyes either. You seemed to come jumping
right out of the sky."

"I jumped right into heaven--the highest jump that ever was made."

"I was a bit put out at first, you know----"

"I know you were."

"I thought you had learned we were coming, and had followed us here."

"Whereas----" he laughed.

"Exactly!"

PART THE FIFTH

I

"But yes, I can marry you in the church," said the Vicar, blowing out
smoke, and laughing enjoyably across at Graeme, who sat in another
garden chair under the big trees in front of the Vicarage.

"In spite of the fact that we are aliens?"

"Oh, it is not so bad as that. We ab-sorbed you by conquest and so you
are really a pa