uld only think now how kind it was of him that
in all this mystery of his coming, and in the singular sadness that was
oppressing him, he should try to interest her. And thus looking at him,
and wondering, an idea came to her.

She went into her bedroom and took down her husband's heavy pilot
overcoat and sou'wester, and handed them to her guest.

"You'd better put them on if you're going to stand there," she said.

"But I am not cold," he said wonderingly.

"But you might be SEEN," she said simply. It was the first suggestion
that had passed between them that his presence there was a secret. He
looked at her intently, then he smiled and said, "I think you're right,
for many reasons," put the pilot coat over his frock coat, removed
his hat with the gesture of a bow, handed it to her, and placed the
sou'wester in its stead. Then for an instant he hesitated as if about
to speak, but Mrs. Bunker, with a delicacy that she could not herself
comprehend at the moment, hurried back to the cabin without giving him
an opportunity.

Nor did she again intrude upon his meditations. Hidden in his disguise,
which to her eyes did not, however, seem to conceal his characteristic
figure, he wandered for nearly an hour under the bluff and along the
shore, returning at last almost mechanically to the cabin, where,
oblivious of his surroundings, he reseated himself in silence by
the table with his cheek resting on his hand. Presently, her quick,
experienced ear detected the sound of oars in their row-locks; she could
plainly see from her kitchen window a small boat with two strangers
seated at the stern being pulled to the shore. With the same strange
instinct of delicacy, she determined not to go out lest her presence
might embarrass her guest's reception of his friends. But as she turned
towards the living room she found he had already risen and was removing
his hat and pilot coat. She was struck, however, by the circumstance
that not only did he exhibit no feeling of relief at his deliverance,
but that a half-cynical, half-savage expression had taken the place of
his former melancholy. As he went to the door, the two gentlemen hastily
clambered up the rocks to greet him.

"Jim reckoned it was you hangin' round the rocks, but I couldn't tell at
that distance. Seemed you borrowed a hat and coat. Well--it's all fixed,
and we've no time to lose. There's a coasting steamer just dropping down
below the Heads, and it will take you aboard.