hands.

When he looked up again he was alone in the room. His sobs broke forth
afresh as he divined why she had left him.

A moment later he stole from the house.

CHAPTER IX.

The bell rang again and the passengers' gangway was hauled up on to
the pier. Morgan leaned against the deck-rail and looked westwards
towards a point where the Dover cliff rose highest and then swept
round. It was at that spot had begun the new ordering of his life
which had at last culminated in the great happiness of to-day.

On a deck-chair close by his elbow sat Margaret. As he shifted his
position a little his eye caught sight of a dainty ear and a soft
cheek, gleaming exquisite through her veil against the golden brown of
her large velvet hat and of the stretch of velvet mantle.

"Morgan, dear," she said, pulling him playfully by the sleeve, "brides
are supposed to be too excited to eat on their wedding day. So I was
when I woke up, and I didn't eat any breakfast. And now the fresh air
makes me as hungry as a hunter. Do get me something nice, please."

When he came back, the mails and luggage had been got on board. The
water began to seethe and foam away from the paddle-wheels, and, with
a pleasant hoot, the boat steamed away. And then, as Morgan leaned
against the side, he fell a-musing on many things, all woven in a web
of wonder at his happiness. Different parts of his life flashed at
him, all out of order and irrelevantly. How near, too, had he just
passed to the Ketterings! Cleo's father rose before him again with
his greying hair and his good face, bent, aproned, and in corduroys,
just as he was wont to stand in the Dover workshop. He remembered the
kindly invitation the old man had given him when they parted, and he
felt touched as he now called to mind the letter he had received from
him on his ceasing to be his son-in-law. "I am glad to know you are
free from her, and hope you won't think me an unnatural father; but
she never tried to win my affections, whereas you won them without
trying. I do hope that at no distant day you will marry a true lady,
who will make up to you for the past. I know what you must have
suffered."

He had been concerned about Cleo, and had so overflowed with pity for
her that he had scarce had the strength to take the step that had made
his happiness possible. But he knew that she was quite well and happy,
living at the same house where he had first seen her, and that it had
been perfect