re was a silence. The waves below dashed and broke on the rocks,
and the hoarse voices from a belated, heavy-laden fishing-boat stole
across the water in shouts to the women, who had been anxiously
awaiting them for some hours on the shore.

'Well, boys dear, have you decided? Are you to act as father's sons,
as Carnegys of the old stock, or, to put it in another way, as
Christians who have given offence, and know that there is but one way
of making up for it? Will you apologise?' Theo spoke with urgent
persuasiveness.

'I shall!' Geoff stood up straight, and his face was pale and set, as
he confronted Theo bravely.

'I shan't!' Alick's head sunk lower and lower; on his brow a gloomy
scowl deepened, and his eyes refused to meet those of his sister
wistfully seeking his.

CHAPTER VIII

THEO'S HAVEN

'Oh, mother, mother, it's too hard for me! You have asked too much,
and I have failed, miserably failed!'

The wind from the sea was blowing fresh and free over the village, and
beyond it to the little churchyard, the God's acre of Northbourne.
Kneeling beside one of the grassy mounds therein was Theo Carnegy,
tears rolling down her earnest face. The girl was overwrought by
home-worries, for Theo was none of the crying sort, as a rule. But
there are times in the lives of each of us when all things seem too
difficult for our feeble hands to smooth out; the knots, the
difficulties, become hopelessly entangled; we sit down dismayed in
stony despair, or we weep helplessly, according to our several
temperaments. From the beginning of the sorrow that shaded her young
days, Theo had a trick, in times when harassing troubles crowded upon
her, of secretly slipping away to the churchyard, and whispering her
trials to that grassy mound, the most sacred spot of earth to the girl.

It was so still, so unutterably peaceful, in the hallowed enclosure,
where the green grass grew tangled among the grey headstones that
elbowed each other in the cramped space. During the week the little
churchyard was deserted. On Sundays the simple fisher-folk wandered in
and out among the Northbourne sleepers, talking softly of their old
neighbours; but it never occurred to them to do anything towards
keeping the graves neat and straight. Theo's loving care kept the
quiet corner where her mother slept in perfect order; but for the rest
an air of dreary neglect prevailed.

Bewildered and harassed by her brothers' mad outbreak, Th