mates. Thank God and my little girl. It be my boat,
thank God!"

And then Tris was at the slip, and the anchor down and all the men
were as eager about the new craft as a group of horsemen could
possibly be about the points of some famous winner. Tris had to tell
every particular about her builder and her building, and as the
fishers were talking excitedly of these things, Joan gave a general
invitation to her friends, and they followed her to the cottage, and
heard the St. Penfer _News_ read, and had a plate of junket[5] and of
clotted cream.

And they were really proud and glad of what they heard. Denas had made
herself so beloved that no one had a grudging or, envious feeling.
Everyone considered how she had come back to them as if she had been
penniless; "and teaching our little ones too--with sixteen hundred
pounds at her back! Wonderful! Wonderful!" said first one and then
another of the women. Indeed, if Denas had thought out a plan to make
herself honoured and popular, she could hardly have conceived of one
more in unison with the simple souls she had to influence. They could
not sleep for talking about it. Denas Penelles was a veritable romance
to them.

"And fair she was and fair she be!" said Mary Oliver, a good woman,
with not a pinch of pride in her make-up. "And if Tris Penrose win her
and she win him, a proper wedding it will be--a wedding made by their
guardian angel. I do think that." And the group of women present
answered one and then another, "A proper wedding it will be, to be
sure."

In the evening there was a great praise-meeting at John's cottage; for
in St. Penfer all rejoicing and all sorrow ended in a religious
meeting. And Denas and Tris sang out of the same hymn-book, and sat
side by side as they listened to John's quaintly eloquent tribute to
the God "who did always keep faith with His children." "I was like to
lose sight of my God," he cried, "but my God never did lose sight of
me. God's children be well off, He goes so neighbourly with them. He
is their pilot and their home-bringer. I did weep to myself all last
night; but just as His promise says, joy did come in the morning." And
then John burst into song, and all his mates and neighbours with him.

And it is in such holy, exalted atmospheres that love reaches its
sweetest, fairest strength and bloom. Tris had no need of words. Words
would have blundered, and hampered, and darkened all he had to say.
One look at Denas as they cl