Come," and he took her hand, "tell me what you are really." "Will you promise not to tell ?" "Of course." "Upon your word ?" "Upon my word." "Well, then--but you'll tell ?" "Not I.Come, go on." "Lady's-maid in the family of a gentleman going abroad." "Sarah, you can't be serious ?" "I am serious.

That was the advertisement I answered." "But I mean what you have been.

You were not a lady's-maid all your life ?" She pulled her shawl closer round her and shivered.
"People are not born ladies' maids, I suppose ?" "Well, who are you, then?
Have you no friends?
What have you been ?" She looked up into the young man's face--a little less harsh at that moment than it was wont to be--and creeping closer to him, whispered--"Do you love me, Maurice ?" He raised one of the little hands that rested on the taffrail, and, under cover of the darkness, kissed it.
"You know I do," he said.

"You may be a lady's-maid or what you like, but you are the loveliest woman I ever met." She smiled at his vehemence.
"Then, if you love me, what does it matter ?" "If you loved me, you would tell me," said he, with a quickness which surprised himself.
"But I have nothing to tell, and I don't love you--yet." He let her hand fall with an impatient gesture; and at that moment Blunt--who could restrain himself no longer--came up.
"Fine night, Mr.Frere ?" "Yes, fine enough." "No signs of a breeze yet, though." "No, not yet." Just then, from out of the violet haze that hung over the horizon, a strange glow of light broke.
"Hallo," cries Frere, "did you see that ?" All had seen it, but they looked for its repetition in vain.

Blunt rubbed his eyes.
"I saw it," he said, "distinctly.