rself how anxious monsieur was about his friend.

At that moment the glass was trembling, and its eyepiece seemed blurred;
for it was fixed upon the figure of a tall, graceful woman, standing
outside one of the windows in the terrace garden of the little chateau,
with a hand raised to shade her eyes, as she looked along the coast
line, but appeared to be gazing straight at where Stratton watched her
with the glass.

One minute of delirious joy as he observed her features, then all was
blurred, and he closed up the glass; he dared not gaze, for his brain
swam, and when the insane desire to look once more came over him, and he
yielded, the figure in its soft, white, clinging drapery, was gone, and
he sternly turned the glass upon the cottage, to watch for the coming of
Brettison, till his eyes refused to distinguish the place.

He felt that they ought to be on their way now, while the occupants of
the house above were at their morning meal; but there was still no sign,
and another hour passed full of agony for Stratton, till he forced
himself to believe that Brettison was acting for the best, and that
there must be good reason for his keeping back.

He took the glass again, and concluded why his friend had not come; for
he saw a group now upon the terrace, and directly after could trace
their descent beyond the cottage to the sands--the admiral first, with
Myra leaning on his arm, then the stately figure of Miss Jerrold, and
lastly Edie and Guest; and all so close to him that he could almost read
the expression on their features as they stopped and walked past the
cottage as if about to come in his direction.

Stratton's heart beat, for there was the possibility of Barron appearing
at the cottage door, but they turned again, went on toward the
south-east and soon disappeared beyond the rocks which lay scattered
along the shore.

"Brettison will be here directly," thought Stratton, and after watching
for a few minutes a thought struck him: they would perhaps come along
the path at the top of the cliff, and in the belief that this might be
so he hurried out to warn the car driver to be ready.

Hardly had he returned to his room when the landlady appeared to say
that a boy was there to deliver a message to him alone, and, upon going
out, a heavy looking peasant announced that he was to go on to the
cottage.

Stratton caught up his hat and started, full of anxiety, for it was
evident that Brettison was having trouble