where a golden rim from its falling light
died off on the farthest line of the sea to the east, and the town
between lay in a haze of deepening purple. Lovibond knew where his
thoughts were, and what new turn they had taken; but he pretended to see
nothing, and he gave no sign.

Sunday as it was, Capt'n Davy's cronies came as usual at nightfall. They
were a sorry gang, but Davy welcomed them with noisy cheer. The lights
were brought in, and the company sat down to its accustomed amusements.
These were drinking and smoking, with gambling in disguise at intervals.
Davy lost tremendously, and laughed with a sort of wild joy at every
failure. He was cheated on all hands, and he knew it. Now and again he
called the cheaters by hard name, but he always paid them their money.
They forgave the one for the sake of the other, and went on without
shame. Lovibond's gorge rose at the spectacle. He was an old gambler
himself, and could have stripped every rascal of them all as naked as a
lettuce after a locust. His indignation got the better of him at last,
and he went out on to the Head.

The calm sea lay like a dark pavement dotted with the reflection of the
stars overhead. Lights in a wide half-circle showed the line of the bay.
Below was the black rock of the island of the Tower of Refuge, and the
narrow strip of the old Red pier; beyond was the dark outline of
the Head, and from the seaward breast of it shot the light of the
lighthouse, like the glow of a kiln. It was as quiet and beautiful out
there as it had been noisy and hideous within.

Lovibond had been walking to and fro for more than an hour listening to
the slumberous voices of the night, and hearing at intervals the louder
bellowing from the room where Captain Davy and his cronies were sitting,
when Davy himself came out.

"I can't stand no more of it, and I've sent them home," he said. "It's
like saying your prayers to a hornpipe, thinking of her and carrying on
with them wastrels."

He was sober in one sense only.

"Tell me more about the little girl in church. Aw, matey, matey!
Something under my waistcoat went creep, creep, creep, same as a
sarpent, when you first spake of her; but its easier to stand till that
jaw inside anyway. Go on, sir. Love at first sight, was it? Aw, well,
the eyes isn't the only place that love is coming in at, or blind men
would all be bachelors. Now mine came in at the ear."

"Did you fall in love with her singing, Capt'n?" said