ay, don't look at me; I
am so ashamed!--I came down to you that night--the first night! You were
calling for water, and I--I raised you on my arm, and--and oh! I was so
happy! I did not know, guess, why; but I know now. I--I must have loved
you even then!"

She hid her eyes on his arm, and he kissed her hair reverently.

"And every day I--I grew to love you more. I was only happy when I was
with you. I wondered why. But I know now! And you were always so kind
and gentle with me; so unlike any other man I had met--the vicar, Doctor
Spence--and I used to like to listen to you; and--and when you touched
me something ran through me, something filled me with gladness."

She paused for breath, her eyes fixed on his face, as if she were not
seeing him, but the past, and her own self moving and being in that
past.

"And then you went, and all the happiness, all the gladness, seemed to
go, and--bend lower--I--I can only whisper it--the night you went I
flung myself on the bed and--and cried."

"My Nell, my dearest!" was all he could say.

"I cried because it seemed to me that my life had come to an end; that
never, so long as I should live, should I know one moment of happiness
again. It was as if all the light had gone out of the sky, as if the sun
had turned cold--ah! you don't know!"

"Do I not, dearest?"

"And then, when I saw you to-day, all the light and warmth came rushing
back, and I knew that it was you who were my light, my sun, and that
without you I was not living, but only a shadow and a mockery of life."

Her hands fell from his breast, her head sank upon his knees, she sobbed
in the abandonment of her passion.

And the man was awed by it, and almost as white as herself. He gathered
her in his strong arms and murmured passionate words of love and
gratitude and devotion.

"Nell, Nell, my Nell! God make me more worthy of your love!" he said
brokenly, hoarsely.

She raised her head from his knees and offered him--of her own free
will--her sweet lips, and then clung to him with a half-tearful,
maidenly shame.

"Let me go!" she said.

* * * * *

The light that never was on earth or sky beamed on the _Annie Laurie_ as
it skimmed toward the jetty.

Nell sat in the stern, and Drake lay at her feet, his arms round her,
his face upturned to hers.

God knows he was grateful for her love. God also knows how unworthy he
felt. This love is such a terrible thing. A maiden goes