house.

The next day was Valmai's last in Nance's cottage. She rose early,
and, after her simple breakfast, put on her white hat, and, kissing the
old woman tenderly, said:

"I am going out for a few hours; there are one or two people I want to
see--Peggi Bullet, and Shon, the sexton. Then I am going to cross the
Rock Bridge."

She did not tell Nance that her chief object was to pay a last visit to
her old haunts by the Berwen. After making all arrangements with Peggi
Bullet and Shon, she took her way across the bridge. The year that had
passed since Cardo had left her, with its varied experiences and
trials, the bitter sense of loneliness and desertion, the pains and the
delights of motherhood, the desolation and sorrow of bereavement, all
had worked a change in the simple girl's character, that now surprised
even herself, and she thankfully realised that her troubles had at all
events generated a strength which enabled her to act for herself and
attend to matters of business which had before been unapproachable
mysteries to her. She shrank a little as she met the bold, admiring
gaze of a knot of sailors, who stood at the door of the Ship Inn, where
she explained to the buxom landlady that she wanted the car to meet her
at the Rock Bridge on the following morning at ten.

"Yes, miss fach, and Jackie will drive you safe; but, indeed, there's
long time since we saw you! You never come to see us now, and there's
many warm hearts on this side the Rock Bridge as on the island, I can
tell you."

"Yes, indeed, I know, and I thank you all," said Valmai, as she went
out again into the sunshine.

The sailors were gone now, and she was free to make her way over the
golden sands so often trodden by her and Cardo.

Every boulder, every sandy nook, every wave that broke, brought its own
sad memories.

She turned up the path by the Berwen, which led to the old church,
carefully avoiding even a glance at the tangled path on the other side
of the river, which she and Cardo had made their own.

Pale and dry-eyed, she pressed her hands on her bosom as if to still
the aching throbbing within. Every step that brought her nearer to the
old church increased the dull aching that weighed her down; but still
she pressed on, longing, yet dreading, to see the spot on which she and
Cardo had made their vows together on that sunny morning which seemed
so long ago.

As she entered the porch, she disturbed the white owl, who emerg