"She is here,--not two miles from where we are standing; not that it
signifies much, for, of course, neither of us would do _that_."

"Not plump out, certainly, in so many words."

"Not in any way, Skeffy. It is because I look upon Dolly as my own dear
sister, I would not suffer a word to be said that could offend her."

"Offend her! Oh dear, how young you are in these things!"

"What is it, Jenny?" cried Tony to the servant-girl, who was shouting
not very intelligibly, from a little knoll at a distance. "Oh, she 's
saying that supper is ready, and the kippered salmon getting cold, as if
any one cared!"

"Don't they care!" cried Skeffy. "Well, then, they have n't been
inhaling this sea-breeze for an hour, as I have. Heaven grant that love
has carried off your appetite, Tony, for I feel as if I could eat for
six."

CHAPTER XXXII. ON THE ROCKS

It was a rare thing for Tony Butler to lie awake at night, and yet he
did so for full an hour or more after that conversation with Skeffy.
It was such a strange blunder for one of Skeffy's shrewdness to have
made,--so inexplicable.

To imagine that he, Tony, had ever been in love with Dolly! Dolly, his
playfellow since the time when the "twa had paidled i' the burn;" Dolly,
to whom he went with every little care that crossed him, never shrinking
for an instant from those avowals of doubt or difficulty that no one
makes to his sweetheart. So, at least, thought Tony. And the same Dolly
to whom he had revealed once, in deepest secrecy, that he was in love
with Alice! To be sure, it was a boyish confession, made years ago; and
since that Alice had grown up to be a woman, and was married, so that
the story of the love was like a fairy tale.

"In love with Dolly!" muttered he. "If he had but ever seen us together,
he would have known that could not be." Poor Tony! he knew of love in
its moods of worship and devotion, and in its aspect of a life-giving
impulse,--a soul-filling, engrossing sentiment,--inspiring timidity
when near, and the desire for boldness when away. With such alternating
influence Dolly had never racked his heart. He sought her with a quiet
conscience, untroubled by a fear.

"How could Skeffy make such a mistake! That it is a mistake, who would
recognize more quickly than Dolly herself; and with what humorous
drollery--a drollery all her own--would she not treat it! A rare
punishment for your blunder, Master Skeffy, would it be to tell Dolly
of it al