Of the man in his absence she spoke but seldom, and when his name was on her lips she would jest with it,--as though the coming of a young embryo lord to shoot gulls on their coast was quite a joke.

The seal-skin which he had given her was very dear to her, and she was at no pains to hide her liking; but of the man as a lover she had never seemed to think.
Nor did she think of him as a lover.

It is not by such thinking that love grows.

Nor did she ever tell herself that while he was there, coming on one day and telling them that his boat would be again there on another, life was blessed to her, and that, therefore, when he should have left them, her life would be accursed to her.

She knew nothing of all this.