tisfied longing. Nothing could alter
that; nothing could heal the wound that Cardo's departure had made
except the anticipation of his return. Yes, that day would come! and
until then she would bear her sorrow with a brave heart and smiling
face. The weather continued rough and stormy, and, looking out from
her bedroom window, the grey skies and windswept streets made no
cheerful impression upon her. The people, the hurrying footsteps, and
the curious Pembrokeshire accent, gave her the impression of having
travelled to a foreign country, all was so different to the peaceful
seclusion of the Berwen banks. It was a "horrid dull town," she
thought and with the consciousness of the angry white harbour which she
had caught sight of on her arrival, her heart sank within her; but she
bravely determined to put a good face on her sorrow. On the second
morning after her arrival she was sitting on the window-seat in her
uncle's room, and reading to him out of the newspaper, when the bang of
the front door and a quick step on the stair announced the doctor's
arrival.

"Well, captain," he said, "and how is the leg getting on?"

He was a bright, breezy-looking man, who gave one the impression of
being a great deal in the open air, and mixing much with the
"sailoring." Indeed, he was rather nautical in his dress and
appearance.

"You have a nurse, I see," he added, looking at Valmai with a shrewd,
pleasant glance.

"Yes," said the captain, "nurse and housekeeper in one. She is may
niece, poor Robert's daughter, you know."

"Ah! to be sure," said the doctor, shaking hands with her. "He went
out as a missionary, didn't he?"

"Yes, to Patagonia, more fool he," said the captain. "Leaving his
country for the sake of them niggers, as if there wasn't plenty of
sinners in Wales for him to preach to. But there, he was a good man,
and Ay'm a bad 'un," and he laughed, as though very well satisfied with
this state of affairs.

"Have you heard the news?" said the doctor, while he examined the
splints of the broken leg.

"No, what is it?" rumbled the captain.

"Why, the _Burrawalla_ has put back for repairs, Just seen her tugged
in--good deal damaged; they say, a collision with the steam-ship,
_Ariadne_.

"By gosh! that's bad. That's the first accident that's ever happened
to Captain Owen, and he's been sailing the last thirty years to my
knowledge. Well, Ay'm tarnished, but Ay'm sorry."

"Always stops with you?" inquir