"Poor, poor old man! What will he do all by himself, wandering about the country with no money! It's dreadful! How could he think of such a thing! He is so weak, too!--he can't possibly get very far!" Here a sudden thought struck her, and picking up Charlie, who had followed her downstairs from her bedroom and was now trotting to and fro, sniffing the air in a somewhat disconsolate and dubious manner, she ran out of the house bareheaded, and hurried up to the top of the "coombe." There she paused, shading her eyes from the sun and looking all about her.

It was a lovely morning, and the sea, calm and sparkling with sunbeams, shone like a blue glass flecked with gold.

The sky was clear, and the landscape fresh and radiant with the tender green of the springtime verdure.

But everything was quite solitary.

Vainly her glance swept from left to right and from right to left again,--there was no figure in sight such as the one she sought and half-expected to discover.