l being in the port, would she give him over?
If Abel had taken his fortune, and married another girl on the head of
it, would she marry him, Eric, as soon as the truth were known? And so
on in an endless variety of possibilities. The power of the strong
will and the determined purpose over the woman's weaker nature became
in time manifest. Sarah began to lose her faith in Abel and to regard
Eric as a possible husband; and a possible husband is in a woman's eye
different to all other men. A new affection for him began to arise in
her breast, and the daily familiarities of permitted courtship
furthered the growing affection. Sarah began to regard Abel as rather
a rock in the road of her life, and had it not been for her mother's
constantly reminding her of the good fortune already laid by in the
Bristol Bank she would have tried to have shut her eyes altogether to
the fact of Abel's existence.

The 11th April was Saturday, so that in order to have the marriage on
that day it would be necessary that the banns should be called on
Sunday, 22nd March. From the beginning of that month Eric kept
perpetually on the subject of Abel's absence, and his outspoken
opinion that the latter was either dead or married began to become a
reality to the woman's mind. As the first half of the month wore on
Eric became more jubilant, and after church on the 15th he took Sarah
for a walk to the Flagstaff Rock. There he asserted himself strongly:

'I told Abel, and you too, that if he was not here to put up his banns
in time for the eleventh, I would put up mine for the twelfth. Now the
time has come when I mean to do it. He hasn't kept his word'--here
Sarah struck in out of her weakness and indecision:

'He hasn't broken it yet!' Eric ground his teeth with anger.

'If you mean to stick up for him,' he said, as he smote his hands
savagely on the flagstaff, which sent forth a shivering murmur, 'well
and good. I'll keep my part of the bargain. On Sunday I shall give
notice of the banns, and you can deny them in the church if you will.
If Abel is in Pencastle on the eleventh, he can have them cancelled,
and his own put up; but till then, I take my course, and woe to anyone
who stands in my way!' With that he flung himself down the rocky
pathway, and Sarah could not but admire his Viking strength and
spirit, as, crossing the hill, he strode away along the cliffs towards
Bude.

During the week no news was heard of Abel, and on Saturday Eric ga