nhappy.

'However, you will come again shortly, will you not, dear Jocelyn?--and
then the time will soon draw on when no more good-byes will be
required.--Always and ever yours,

'AVICE.'

Jocelyn, having read the letter, was surprised at the naivete it showed,
and at Avice and her mother's antiquated simplicity in supposing that to
be still a grave and operating principle which was a bygone barbarism
to himself and other absentees from the island. His father, as a
money-maker, might have practical wishes on the matter of descendants
which lent plausibility to the conjecture of Avice and her mother; but
to Jocelyn he had never expressed himself in favour of the ancient ways,
old-fashioned as he was.

Amused therefore at her regard of herself as modern, Jocelyn was
disappointed, and a little vexed, that such an unforeseen reason should
have deprived him of her company. How the old ideas survived under the
new education!

The reader is asked to remember that the date, though recent in the
history of the Isle of Slingers, was more than forty years ago.

* * *

Finding that the evening seemed louring, yet indisposed to go back and
hire a vehicle, he went on quickly alone. In such an exposed spot the
night wind was gusty, and the sea behind the pebble barrier kicked and
flounced in complex rhythms, which could be translated equally well as
shocks of battle or shouts of thanksgiving.

Presently on the pale road before him he discerned a figure, the figure
of a woman. He remembered that a woman passed him while he was reading
Avice's letter by the last lamp, and now he was overtaking her.

He did hope for a moment that it might be Avice, with a changed mind.
But it was not she, nor anybody like her. It was a taller, squarer form
than that of his betrothed, and although the season was only autumn she
was wrapped in furs, or in thick and heavy clothing of some kind.

He soon advanced abreast of her, and could get glimpses of her profile
against the roadstead lights. It was dignified, arresting, that of a
very Juno. Nothing more classical had he ever seen. She walked at a
swinging pace, yet with such ease and power that there was but little
difference in their rate of speed for several minutes; and during this
time he regarded and conjectured. However, he was about to pass her by
when she suddenly turned and addressed him.

'Mr Pierston, I think, of East Quarriers?'

He ass