ation to that story, and he always held that the point of it
was not the love of the father, but the magnificent repentance of the boy
who could simply say, "_I have sinned against Heaven and before thee, and
am no more worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired
servants_." No wonder the fatted calf was killed for him. No excuses; a
noble confession and a trust in his father's affection for him! His own
Robert would never go wrong, but if he did, it would cost nothing to
forgive him. Then, as he often did, he fell on his knees, and, in front
of the space where the window was to come, which would open on a little
southern balcony looking over the sea, there, amid the lumps of plaster
and shavings, he besought his Maker to preserve the child. Michael was
sincere in his prayers, nakedly sincere, and yet there were some things
he kept to himself even when he was with his God. He never mentioned his
disappointment with his wife, never a word; but he assumed a right to the
perfect enjoyment of Robert by way of compensation. Calvinist as he was
to the marrow, he would almost have impeached the Divine justice if
Robert had been removed from him.

Robert, walking leisurely, turning to look behind him for the hundredth
time, had spied Miss Shipton on her road to the town from her accustomed
plunge. He intercepted her by going round a meadow to the left at a
great rate, and found himself face to face with her as she was about to
pass the corner. The third side of the meadow round which he had raced
was an unfinished road, and was a way, though not the usual way, back to
Perran.

"Good morning, Miss Shipton. Are you going home?"

"Yes! I suppose you are going to your house."

"Yes," and Robert walked slowly back along the way he had come, Miss
Shipton accompanying him, for it was the way home. When they came to the
corner, however, they both, without noticing it, went eastward, and not
to the town.

"Should you like to be a sailor, Mr. Trevanion?" said Miss Shipton,
catching sight of the fishing vessels over the low sea-beaten hedge.

"No, I think not. At least it would depend----"

"Depend on what?"

"I should not like to be away for weeks during the North Sea fishing,
if----"

"If it were very cold?"

"Oh, no; that is not what I meant--if I had a wife at home who cared for
me and watched for me!"

"Really, Mr. Trevanion, if you were a fisherman you would not take things
so seriously. It w