easier
see some savage devastate the beauty of these Hills. Wait! I swear to
leave it as it is. I swear that no eyes but ours shall rest upon it;
but you shall not destroy it!"

Command and power rang in Thornly's voice. Mark wavered. Billy hung his
head.

"Arter all," he groaned, "we ain't none o' us got the final right.
Janet's my gal, but her beauty is hers, an' God Almighty's. Keep the
picter till such time as my Janet can judge an' say. The time will come
when she'll get her bearin's, with full instructions, an' then she'll
judge among us all!"

The two rough men turned toward the door. "When she tells ye," Billy
paused to say, "she'll be wiser than what she is t'-day, poor little
critter!"

Thornly watched the men, in stern silence, until they passed from sight;
then he went back to the easel.

"Pimpernel," he whispered brokenly, "poor little wild flower, out of
place among us all!" He drew a heavy cloth over the radiant face, and
with reverent hand placed the canvas against the wall in the darkest
corner of the room.

* * * * *

Late that afternoon Billy's boat put off for the Station in the teeth of
a rising gale and amid ominous warnings of thunder.

Susan Jane grew more irritable and nervous as the storm rose. She feared
storm and lightning.

"Janet, ain't that Billy's sail crossin' the bay?" she said. Janet came
to the window.

"Yes, it is," she faltered; "and he's going on!"

"Well, what do you suppose? Ain't he got t' get back by sundown?
'T would be a pretty pass if he'd come off at sundown."

"But he's been off all day, likely as not!" Janet's lip quivered.

"Well, s'pose he has. Are you goin' t' be one of them tormentin' women
who is always naggin' a man about what he's doin' an' what he ain't
a-doin'? Where's David?"

"He's gone up into the Light, Susan Jane."

The woman turned anxiously toward the window. "It's an awful storm
risin', Janet. Wind off sea, but changin' every minute. Draw the shade.
I'm fearin' the ocean will rise high enough fur us t' see the breakers
over the dunes! I ain't seen the ocean fur thirty odd years, an' I ain't
goin' t' now!" Her voice rose hysterically, like a frightened child's.
"I jest won't see the ocean!" Janet pulled the green shade down, and hid
from her own aching eyes the vanishing sight of Billy's struggling
boat, but her loving heart went with it as, spurning the wind and
darkness, it made for the dunes