ere in the turf-shelter with you. I can see--even
in the dark--that you look grave. Do not do that. It is not worth that."

He broke off with his easy laugh, as if to banish any suggestion of
gravity coming from himself.

"It is not worth looking grave about. And I am sorry if I was rude a
minute ago. I had no right, of course, to assume that you would be here.
I suppose it was impertinent--was that it?"

"I will not quarrel," she answered, soothingly--"if that is what you
want."

Her voice was oddly placid. It almost seemed to suggest that she had
come to-night for a certain purpose; that one subject of conversation
alone would interest her, and that to all others she must turn a deaf
ear.

He came a little nearer, and, leaning against the turf wall, looked down
at her. He was suddenly grave now. The roles were again reversed; for
it was the woman who was tenacious to one purpose and the man who seemed
inconsequent, flitting from grave to gay, from one thought to another.
His apology had been made graciously enough, but with a queer pride,
quite devoid of the sullenness which marks the pride of the humbly
situated.

"No; I do not want that," he answered. "I want a little sympathy, that
is all; because I have been educated above my station. And I looked
for it from those who are responsible for that which is nearly always a
catastrophe. And it is your uncle who educated me. He is responsible in
the first instance, and, of course, I am grateful to him."

"He could never have educated you," put in Miriam, "if you had not been
ready for the education."

Barebone put aside the point. He must, at all events, have learnt
humility from Septimus Marvin--a quality not natural to his temperament.

"And you are responsible, as well," he went on, "because you have taught
me a use for the education."

"Indeed!" she said, gently and interrogatively, as if at last he had
reached the point to which she wished to bring him.

"Yes; the best use to which I could ever put it. To talk to you on an
equality."

He looked hard at her through the darkness, which was less intense now;
for the moon was not far below the horizon. Her face looked white, and
he thought that she was breathing quickly. But they had always been
friends; he remembered that just in time.

"It is only natural that I should look forward, when we are at sea, to
coming back here--" He paused and kicked the turf-wall with his heel, as
if to remind her that sh