"It rained yesterday and the day before, but to-day is simply glorious. And now I must stop in earnest.--Ever yours lovingly,
Miss Grimshaw had been writing her letter at the writing-table in the sitting-room window. The sitting-room was on the ground floor, and as she looked up from addressing the envelope, Mr. Giveen, at the window and backed by the glorious September afternoon, met her gaze.
He was looking in at her. How long he had been standing at the window gazing upon her it would be impossible to say. Irritated at having been spied upon, Miss Grimshaw frowned at Mr. Giveen, who smiled in return, at the same time motioning her to open the window.
"Well?" said Miss Grimshaw, putting up the sash.
"Come out with me," said Mr. Giveen. "Michael is off at Drumboyne, and there's no one to know. Put on your hat and come out with me."
"I'll get the boat and take you to see the seals on the Seven Sisters Rocks. The sea is as smooth as a--smooth as a--smooth as a what's-its-name. I'll be thinking of it in a minit. Stick on your hat and come out with me."
"Some other day, when Mr. French is at home. I don't understand your meaning at all when you talk about nobody knowing. I never do things that I want to hide."
"Sure, that was only my joke," grinned Mr. Giveen; "and if you don't come to-day you'll never come at all, for it's the end of the season, and it's a hundred to one you won't find another day fit to go till next summer; and I'll show you the big sea cave," finished he, "for the tide will be out by the time we've had a look at the seals. It's not foolin' you I am. The boat's on the beach, and it won't take ten minutes to get there."
"I'll come down and look at the sea," said Miss Grimshaw, who could not resist the appeal of the lovely afternoon, "if you'll wait five seconds till I get my hat."
"Sure, I'd wait five hundred years," replied the cousin of Mr. French, propping himself against the house wall, where he stood whistling softly and breaking off every now and then to chuckle to himself, after the fashion of a person who has thought of a good joke or has got the better of another in a deal.
Five minutes later, hearing the girl leaving the house by the front door, he came round and met her.