his head if he touched that hand, he
could not have helped doing it. From putting his own right hand upon it
as if by chance, and taking it away again after a minute or so, and then
putting it back again, he got to walking along without taking it off at
all, as if he, the escort, were bound to do that as an important duty,
and had come for that purpose. The most curious thing about this little
incident was, that Morgianna did not seem to know it. She looked so
innocent and unconscious when she turned her eyes on Fernando, that it
was quite provoking.

She talked about the sea, the hills, the rocks, the sky, the stars,
while the old men went on ahead, and when she slipped on the verge of a
precipice three feet high and came near falling into a pool of dirty
water, and he saved her from the fall by his coolness and daring, she
thanked him and told him how grateful she was that he was near, and he
said something about how happy he would be to be always near her, to
guard her footsteps along life's rugged pathway. Then she said something
to the effect that it would be pleasant if one could always have one's
friends near, and that she hoped they would always be friends from that
time forth. And when Fernando said, "not friends" he hoped, Morgianna
was quite surprised and said not enemies she hoped; and when Fernando
suggested that they might be something better than either, Morgianna,
all of a sudden, found a star, which was brighter than all the other
stars, and begged to call his attention to the same, and was ten times
more innocent and unconscious than ever.

In this way, they journeyed up the steep ascent, talking very little
above a whisper, and wishing that the promontory was a dozen times
higher--at least, such was Fernando's wish--when they finally reached
the top and saw the two old men under the lee cliff listening to the
ocean's hollow roar.

Fernando carried a robe and some wraps for Morgianna, and he conducted
her to a sheltered spot below the first ledge of rocks, where he spread
a robe for her to sit on, and then, with loving fingers that thrilled
with each touch, adjusted the wraps about her shapely little shoulders.
For a long time they sat listening to the wild roar of the angry waters
below, gazing on the phosphorescent flashes, where the swelling waves
broke in crested splendor on the well-worn rocks.

He was first to break the silence.

"Miss Lane," he said, "had I known that Lieutenant Matson was