and his primary function is that of an informal, unmercenary,
purely friendly and philanthropic match-maker, introduced by the
young man to persuade the parents of the young woman that he is a
splendid fellow, with substantial possessions or magnificent
prospects, and entirely fit to marry her. But he has a secondary
function, less frequent, though scarcely less familiar; and it is
that of a lover by proxy, or intended husband by deputy, with
duties of moral guardianship over the girl while the man himself
is off 'at the herrings,' or away 'at the mackerel,' or abroad on
wider voyages."

And now, of course, begins Philip Christian's ordeal: for Kitty
discovers that she loves him and not Pete, and he that he loves Kitty
madly. On the other hand there is the imperative duty to keep faith
with his absent friend; and more than this. His future is full of high
hope; the eyes of his countrymen and of the Governor himself are
beginning to fasten on him as the most promising youth in the island;
it is even likely that he will be made Deemster, and so win back all
the position that his father threw away. But to marry Kitty--even if
he can bring himself to break faith with Pete--will be to marry
beneath him, to repeat his father's disaster, and estrange the favor
of all the high "society" of the island. Therefore, even when the
first line of resistance is broken down by a report that Pete is dead,
Philip determines to cut himself free from the temptation. But the
girl, who feels that he is slipping away from her, now takes fate into
her own hands. It is the day of harvest-home--the "Melliah"--on her
father's farm. Philip has come to put an end to her hopes, and she
knows it. The "Melliah" is cut and the usual frolic begins:

"Then the young fellows went racing over the field, vaulting the
stooks, stretching a straw rope for the girls to jump over,
heightening and tightening it to trip them up, and slackening it
and twirling it to make them skip. And the girls were falling
with a laugh, and, leaping up again and flying off like the dust,
tearing their frocks and dropping their sun-bonnets as if the
barley-grains they had been reaping had got into their blood.

"In the midst of this maddening frolic, while Caesar and the
others were kneeling by the barley-stack, Kate snatched Philip's
hat from his head and shot like a gleam into the