red
the pavilion, and, going at once to the upper story, opened and set a
light in one of the windows that looked toward the sea. Immediately
afterwards the light at the schooner's masthead was run down and
extinguished. Its purpose had been attained, and those on board were sure
that they were expected. The old woman resumed her preparations; although
the other shutters remained closed, I could see a glimmer going to and fro
about the house; and a gush of sparks from one chimney after another soon
told me that the fires were being kindled.

Northmour and his guests, I was now persuaded, would come ashore as soon
as there was water on the floe. It was a wild night for boat service; and
I felt some alarm mingle with my curiosity as I reflected on the danger of
the landing. My old acquaintance, it was true, was the most eccentric of
men; but the present eccentricity was both disquieting and lugubrious to
consider. A variety of feelings thus led me toward the beach, where I lay
flat on my face in a hollow within six feet of the track that led to the
pavilion. Thence, I should have the satisfaction of recognizing the
arrivals, and, if they should prove to be acquaintances, greeting them as
soon as they landed.

Some time before eleven, while the tide was still dangerously low, a
boat's lantern appeared close in shore; and, my attention being thus
awakened, I could perceive another still far to seaward, violently tossed,
and sometimes hidden by the billows. The weather, which was getting
dirtier as the night went on, and the perilous situation of the yacht upon
a lee shore, had probably driven them to attempt a landing at the earliest
possible moment.

A little afterwards, four yachtsmen carrying a very heavy chest, and
guided by a fifth with a lantern, passed close in front of me as I lay,
and were admitted to the pavilion by the nurse. They returned to the
beach, and passed me a third time with another chest, larger but
apparently not so heavy as the first. A third time they made the transit;
and on this occasion one of the yachtsmen carried a leather portmanteau,
and the others a lady's trunk and carriage bag. My curiosity was sharply
excited. If a woman were among the guests of Northmour, it would show a
change in his habits, and an apostasy from his pet theories of life, well
calculated to fill me with surprise. When he and I dwelt there together,
the pavilion had been a temple of misogyny. And now, one of the deteste