were true. Bernard removed the letter from the
envelope, looked at the signature, and reading turned pale. The note was
from a lady who asked if I was aware that he had offered himself to
another.

"A second time I pressed the question to know if the contents were true,
and he answered, 'Yes', and added that it was not his fault that he did
not marry the lady.

"'Then you love her still, Bernard?'

"'Yes, Lucille, but I love you also.'

"In anger and disappointed love I left him. Of course all plans for the
marriage were cancelled at once. 'First love or none,' was then written
on my heart, where it still remains."

Lucille wept while Leo sat surprised. He knew not what to say, for her
heart-story and heart edict, "First love or none," had opened his own
wounds afresh, and had shut the door to Lucille's heart perhaps forever.

"Come, Lucille," a call of Mrs. Harris, aroused the courage of Leo, and
he said to Lucille, who with a flushed face looked more beautiful than
ever, "At least we should be friends." "Yes," she murmured, and Mrs.
Harris and her daughter retired.

The night before, the second officer had told Lucille that land would
probably be seen early next day on the port-side. All the morning, Mrs.
Harris was awaiting anxiously more news about the great strike at
Harrisville.

"Land, on the port-side, sir!" shouted the forward lookout, just as four
bells struck the hour of ten o'clock. The officer on duty, pacing the
bridge, raised his glass and in a moment he answered, "Ay! Ay! The
Skelligs."

"What do they mean?" inquired Mrs. Harris of a sailor passing. "The
officer has sighted land, madam. Don't you see the specks of blue low
down on the horizon to the northeast? That's the Skelligs, three rocky
islets off the southwest coast of Ireland, near where I was born, and
where my wife Katy, and the babies live. That's where my dear old mother
also keeps watch for her Patsie."

"Is your name Patsie?" Alfonso asked.

"Yes, sir, Patsie Fitzgerald, and I'm proud of my name, my family, the
Emerald Isle, and the fine steamer that's taking us safely home, and may
God bless all you fine people, and keep my wife and babies and my dear
old mother!"

"Thank you!" said Alfonso, "here, Patsie, is a little money for the
babies," and the sailor tipped his hat and bowed his thanks.

The signal officer on Brea Head, Valentia Island, was soon exchanging
signals with the "Majestic," and five minutes later the sighti