ll wait for me."

"Well," she said softly, her dark eyes full of merriment, "I'll
promise that while you are away no one else shall spoil me. There!
Good-bye!"

She was tearing herself out of his hands.

"First give me a token," he said.

Daffodils lined the path, though in the dusk he could not see them.
But she knew they were there, and stopped and plucked two, blew upon
both, gave one to him, and put the other into the folds at her bosom.

"Good-bye! Good-bye!" she said in an under-breath.

"Good-bye!" he answered.

She ran a few steps, but he could not let her go yet, and in an
instant he sprang abreast of her. He threw one arm about her waist
and the other about her neck, tipped up her chin, and kissed her on
the lips. A gurgling laugh came up to him.

"Remember!" he whispered over the upturned face in the white
kerchief.

At the next instant he was gone. Then, standing under the dark elms
alone, she heard the porch door opening, a heavy foot treading on the
gravel, and a deep voice saying: "Here are the heifers home, but
where's the little lass?"

It was her eldest brother, Asher, and she walked up to him and said
quite calmly:--

"Oh! what a bad hasp that gate has--it takes such a time to open and
close."

* * * * *

Michael Sunlocks reached the harbor at the time appointed. As he
crossed the quay some fishermen were lounging there with pipes
between their teeth. A few of them came up to him to bid him Godspeed
in their queer way.

Stephen Orry was standing apart by the head of the harbor steps, and
at the bottom of them his boat, a yawl, was lying moored. They got
into it and Stephen sculled out of the harbor. It was still very
thick over the town, but they could see the lights of the Irish brig
in the bay. Outside the pier the air was fresher, and there was
something of a swell on the water.

"The fog is lifting," said Stephen Orry. "There'll be a taste of a
breeze before long."

He seemed as if he had something to say but did not know how to
begin. His eye caught the light on Point of Ayre.

"When are they to build the lighthouse?" he asked.

"After the spring tides," said Michael.

They were about midway between the pier and the brig when Stephen
rested his scull under his arm and drew something from one of his
pockets.

"This is the money," he said, and he held out a bag towards Michael
Sunlocks.

"No," said Michael, and he drew quickly back.

T