h ran the wash of the low surf. All the rest of the expanse of
sand back to the cliff-like hills lay dry and tumbled into hummocks and
drifts, from which projected here a sawlog cast inland from a raft by
some long-past storm, there a slab, again a ship's rib sticking gaunt
and defiant from the shifting, restless medium that would smother it.
And just beyond the edge of the hard sand, following the long curves of
the wash, lay a dark, narrow line of bark fragments.

The air was very clear and crystalline. The light-houses on the ends of
the twin piers, though some miles distant, seemed close at hand. White
herring gulls, cruising against the blue, flashed white as the sails of
a distant ship. A fresh breeze darkened the blue velvet surface of the
water, tumbled the white foam hissing up the beach, blew forward over
the dunes a fine hurrying mist of sand, and bore to Orde at last the
refreshment of the wide spaces. A woman, walking slowly, bent her head
against the force of this wind.

Orde watched her idly. She held to the better footing of the smooth
sand, which made it necessary that she retreat often before the
inrushing wash, sometimes rather hastily. Orde caught himself admiring
the grace of her deft and sudden movements, and the sway of her willowy
figure. Every few moments she turned and faced the lake, her head thrown
back, the wind whipping her garments about her.

As she drew nearer, Orde tried in vain to catch sight of her face. She
looked down, watching the waters advance and recede; she wore a brimmed
hat bent around her head by means of some sort of veil tied over the
top and beneath her chin. When she had arrived nearly opposite Orde she
turned abruptly inland, and a moment later began laboriously to climb
the steep sand.

The process seemed to amuse her. She turned her head sidewise to watch
with interest the hurrying, tumbling little cascades that slid from her
every step. From time to time she would raise her skirts daintily with
the tips of her fingers, and lean far over in order to observe with
interest how her feet sank to the ankles, and how the sand rushed from
either side to fill in the depressions. The wind carried up to Orde low,
joyous chuckles of delight, like those of a happy child.

As though directed by some unseen guide, her course veered more and more
until it led directly to the spot where Orde stood. When she was within
ten feet of him she at last raised her head so the young man c