For of course it would be hers, and now she would be able to come across from Brecqhou whenever she wished.
The matter was not settled quite so easily as that, however.
She was dancing eagerly among the big round stones on the shore of Havre Gosselin, when the boat came in, with the cockleshell in tow and the small boy sitting in it, with his chin on his knees and shaking still with excitement and chills.
"All the same, mon gars, it was foolishness, for you might have been drowned," said the older man of the two, as they drew in to the shore, and the other man nodded agreement.
"I--w-w-wanted it for C-C-Carette," chittered the boy.
"Yes, yes, we know.

But--And then there is M.le Seigneur, you understand." "But, Monsieur Carre," cried the small girl remonstratively, "it would never have come in if Phil had not gone for it.

It would have got smashed in the Gouliot or gone right past and been lost.

And, besides, I do so want it." "All the same, little one, the Seigneur's rights must be respected.

You'd better go and tell him about it and ask him--" "I will, mon Gyu!" and she was off up the zigzag before he had finished.
And it would have been a very different man from Peter le Pelley who could refuse the beguilement of Carette's wistful dark eyes, when her heart was set on her own way, as it generally was.
The Seigneur, indeed, had no special liking for the Le Marchants, who had sat themselves down in his island of Brecqhou without so much as a by-your-leave or thank you.