ingered till the very last, reluctant to follow,
and looking alternately at the boat and the valley behind. Her delay
provoked a remark from Captain Jacobs, a thickset man of hybrid stains,
resulting from the mixed effects of fire and water, peculiar to sailors
where engines are the propelling power.

'Now then, missy, if you please. I am sorry to tell 'ee our time's up.
Who are you looking for, miss?'

'My brother--he has walked a short distance inland; he must be here
directly. Could you wait for him--just a minute?'

'Really, I am afraid not, m'm.' Cytherea looked at the stout,
round-faced man, and at the vessel, with a light in her eyes so
expressive of her own opinion being the same, on reflection, as his, and
with such resignation, too, that, from an instinctive feeling of pride
at being able to prove himself more humane than he was thought to
be--works of supererogation are the only sacrifices that entice in this
way--and that at a very small cost, he delayed the boat till some among
the passengers began to murmur.

'There, never mind,' said Cytherea decisively. 'Go on without me--I
shall wait for him.'

'Well, 'tis a very awkward thing to leave you here all alone,' said the
captain. 'I certainly advise you not to wait.'

'He's gone across to the railway station, for certain,' said another
passenger.

'No--here he is!' Cytherea said, regarding, as she spoke, the half
hidden figure of a man who was seen advancing at a headlong pace down
the ravine which lay between the heath and the shore.

'He can't get here in less than five minutes,' a passenger said. 'People
should know what they are about, and keep time. Really, if--'

'You see, sir,' said the captain, in an apologetic undertone, 'since
'tis her brother, and she's all alone, 'tis only nater to wait a minute,
now he's in sight. Suppose, now, you were a young woman, as might be,
and had a brother, like this one, and you stood of an evening upon
this here wild lonely shore, like her, why you'd want us to wait, too,
wouldn't you, sir? I think you would.'

The person so hastily approaching had been lost to view during this
remark by reason of a hollow in the ground, and the projecting cliff
immediately at hand covered the path in its rise. His footsteps were
now heard striking sharply upon the flinty road at a distance of about
twenty or thirty yards, but still behind the escarpment. To save time,
Cytherea prepared to ascend the plank.

'Let me give