r why the good God has made this difference between us two; but
I see it and feel it. It would be fitting for you to be her husband; it
would be a shame to her to become my wife."

"Are you grieved about it, Tardif?" I asked.

"No, no," he answered; "we have always been good friends, you and I,
doctor. No, you shall marry her, and I will be happy. I will come to
visit you sometimes, and she will call me her good Tardif. That is
enough for me."

"What are you talking about?" asked Olivia. It was impossible to tell
her, or to continue the conversation. Moreover, the narrow channel
between Breckhou and Sark is so strong in its current, that it required
both caution and skill to steer the boat amid the needle-like points of
the rocks. At last we gained one of the entrances to the caves, but we
could not pull the boat quite up to the strand. A few paces of shallow
water, clear as glass, with pebbles sparkling like gems beneath it, lay
between us and the caves.

"Tardif," I said, "you need not wait for us. We will return by the
cliffs."

"You know the Gouliot Caves as well as I do?" he replied, though in a
doubtful tone.

"All right!" I said, as I swung over the side of the boat into the
water, when I found myself knee-deep. Olivia looked from me to Tardif
with a flushed face--an augury that made my pulses leap. Why should her
face never change when he carried her in his arms? Why should she
shrink from me?

"Are you as strong as Tardif?" she asked, lingering and hesitating
before she would trust herself to me.

"Almost, if not altogether," I answered gayly. "I'm strong enough to
undertake to carry you without wetting the soles of your feet. Come, it
is not more than half a dozen yards."

She was standing on the bench I had just left, looking down at me with
the same vivid flush upon her cheeks and forehead, and with an uneasy
expression in her eyes. Before she could speak again I put my arms round
her, and lifted her down.

"You are quite as light as a feather," I said, laughing, as I carried
her to the strip of moist and humid strand under the archway in the
rocks. As I put her down I looked back to Tardif, and saw him regarding
us with grave and sorrowful eyes.

"Adieu!" he cried; "I am going to look after my lobster-pots. God bless
you both!"

He spoke the last words heartily; and we stood watching him as long as
he was in sight. Then we went on into the caves.

CHAPTER THE TWENTY-NINTH.

THE GOU