ed face
that the sunbonnet shadowed.

"Sorry for me, eh?" he said, and he uttered a laugh that was short and
very bitter.

She bent down over the dog.

"Yes, I am sorry," she said, almost under her breath.

Bending lower, she picked up something that lay on the ground between
them.

"You dropped this," she said.

He took it from her with a grim hardening of the mouth. It was the
letter he had received from his _fiancee_ a year ago. But his eyes never
left the face of the girl before him.

"I wonder--" he said abruptly, and stopped.

There was a pause. The girl waited, her hand nervously caressing the
Newfoundland's curls. She did not raise her eyes, but the lids fluttered
strangely.

"I wonder," Durant said, and his voice was suddenly kind, "if I might
ask you to do something for me."

She gave him a swift glance.

"Please do!" she murmured.

"This letter," he said, and he held it out to her.

"I should like it torn up--very small."

She took the envelope and hesitated. Durant was watching her. There was
unmistakable mastery in his eyes.

"Go on!" he said briefly.

And with a quick, startled movement, she obeyed. The letter fluttered
around them both in tiny fragments. Hugh Durant looked on with a hard,
impassive face, as he might have looked on at an execution.

The girl's hands were shaking. She glanced at him once or twice
uncertainly.

When the work of destruction was accomplished she made him a nervous
curtsey and turned to go.

Durant's face softened a second time into a smile.

"Thank you--Molly," he said, and he put his hand to his hat though she
was not looking at him.

And afterwards he stood among the fragments of his letter and watched
till both the girl and the dog were out of sight.

Twenty-four hours later Hugh Durant stood on the sandy shore and tapped
with his crutch on the large, flat stone that was set for a step on the
threshold of the little, wooden cottage behind the sand dunes.

He had reached the place with much difficulty, persevering with a
doggedness characteristic of him; and there were great drops on his
forehead though the afternoon was cloudy and cool.

A quick step sounded in answer to his summons, and in a moment his
hostess appeared at the open door.

"Why didn't you come straight in?" she said hospitably.

She was dressed in lilac print. Her sleeves were turned up to the
elbows, and she wore a big apron with a bib. He noticed that her feet
were no l