If there were no signs of merriment about them as they wandered quietly about the strand, if they still bore something of the aspect of a funeral party, it was at all events the aspect of a party after the funeral. Their corpse was laid, so far as they were concerned, and their thoughts and hearts were more at liberty to turn to other matters.
They have none of them ever cared greatly for Alderney, and they always speak of it as a remote, unfriendly, melancholy, and slow little place, lacking the gem-like beauty and joyous vitality of Sark. But then one's outlook is always coloured by one's inlook, and an overcast mind sees all things shadowed.
They lunched at the Scott Hotel, in the garden, and felt better than they had done for two days when their feet once more trod the deck of the _Courier_.
The southern cliffs were filmy blue in the distance, Ortach and the Casquets were dim against the horizon, and Charles and Miss Penny stood together in the stern looking back over the long straight track of the boat, and thinking both of the lonely one in the mean little house in St. Anne. Margaret and Graeme had stood watching for a time, and had then stolen away forward. Their outlook was ahead, where Sark was rising boldly out of the blue waters.
"I doubt if we'll ever hear anything more of him," said Charles, with a sigh at thought of it all.
"You will always remember that you have done your duty by him. You could not have done more."
"You have been very kind to me all through, very kind, all of you. And you especially.... Hennie--will you marry me?"
And she looked up at him with a happy face, and said quietly, "Yes, I will. I believe we can make one another very happy."
"I'm sure we can. Come along and tell the others;" and they also turned from the past and went forward.
With Photogravure Frontispiece by HAROLD COPPING. THIRD EDITION. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6s.
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