t her eyes happened to light on
a vessel that was scudding up channel under double-reefed topsails, and
she stood for a minute to watch it. Then she, also inadvertently,
perceived that the coastguardsman over the way had come out of his
little box, and was similarly watching the vessel--through his
telescope. Nan hesitated for a second. The snow was deep, though a
kind of path had been trodden a few yards farther along. Then she
walked quickly on till she came to that path, crossed, went back to the
coastguardsman, and addressed him, with a roseate glow on her cheek.

'Oh, I beg your pardon--but--but--I suppose you know Singing Sal?'

'Yes, Miss,' said the little Celtic-looking man with the brown beard.
He was evidently surprised.

'Do you know where she is? I hope she wasn't in the storm yesterday?
She hasn't been along this way lately?'

'No, Miss; not that I knows of.'

'Thank you, I am very much obliged.'

'Wait a minute, Miss--Wednesday--yes, it was last night, I believe, as
Sal was to sing at a concert at Updene. Yes, it was. Some o' my mates
at Cuckmere got leave to go.'

'Updene farm?'

'Yes, Miss,' said the wiry little sailor with a grin. 'That's
promotion for Sal--to sing at a concert.'

'I don't see why she should not sing at a concert,' said Nan, regarding
him with her clear gray eyes, so that the grin instantly vanished from
his face. 'I've heard much worse singing at many a concert. Then, if
she was at Updene last night, she would most likely come along here
to-day.'

'I don't know, Miss,' said the man, who knew much less about Singing
Sal's ways than did Miss Anne Beresford. 'Mayhap the concert didn't
come off, along of the snow.'

Nan again thanked him, and continued on her way--eastward. She was
thinking. Somehow she had quite forgotten about the church. The air
around her was wonderfully keen and exhilarating; the skies overhead
were intensely blue; out there on the downs the soft, white snow would
be beautiful. Nan walked on at a brisker pace, and her spirits rose.
The sunlight seemed to get into her veins. And then her footing
required a great deal of attention, and she had plenty of active
exercise; for though here and there the force of the wind had left the
roads almost bare, elsewhere the snow had formed long drifts of three
to five feet in depth, and these had either to be got round or plunged
through. Then, up Kemp-Town way, where there is less traffic, her
diffi