only be the fault of my dullness; for I again affirm that the
danger is as apparent to my eyes as the sun at noon day."

"Then we must continue blind, sir," returned Mrs Wyllys, with a cold
salute. "I thank you for your good and kind intentions, but you cannot
blame us for not consenting to follow advice which is buried in so much
obscurity. Although in our own grounds, we shall be pardoned the rudeness
of leaving you. The hour appointed for our departure has now arrived."

Wilder returned the grave bow of Mrs Wyllys with one quite as formal as
her own; though he bent with greater grace, and with more cordiality, to
the deep but hurried curtesy of Gertrude Grayson. He remained in the
precise spot, however, in which they left him, until he saw them enter the
villa; and he even fancied he could catch the anxious expression of
another timid glance which the latter threw in his direction, as her light
form appeared to float from before his sight. Placing one hand on the
wall, the young sailor then leaped into the highway. As his feet struck
the ground, the slight shock seemed to awake him from his abstraction, and
he became conscious that he stood within six feet of the old mariner, who
had now twice stepped so rudely between him and the object he had so much
at heart, The latter did not allow him time to give utterance to his
disappointment; for he was the first himself to speak.

"Come, brother," he said, in friendly, confidential tones, and shaking his
head, like one who wished to show to his companion that he was aware of
the deception he had attempted to practise; "come, brother, you have stood
far enough on this tack, and it is time to try another. Ay, I've been
young myself in my time, and I know what a hard matter it is to give the
devil a wide birth, when there is fun to be found in sailing in his
company: But old age brings us to our reckonings; and, when the life is
getting on short allowance with a poor fellow, he begins to think of being
sparing of his tricks, just as water is saved in a ship, when the calms
set in, after it has been spilt about decks like rain, for weeks and
months on end. Thought comes with gray hairs, and no one is the worse for
providing a little of it among his other small stores."

"I had hoped, when I gave you the bottom of the hill, and took the top
myself," returned Wilder, without even deigning to look at his
disagreeable companion, "that we had parted company for ever. As you seem,