The scene was all as he might have expected to see it; but there was no living creature in sight.

He stood in the gale, bare-headed, looking, looking; he had no desire to enter the house.

The sea-maid was not in sight, truly; but as long as he stood alone in the moonlight scene, he felt that her presence was with him.

Then he remembered the dying man of whom he had been told, who lay in such need of his ministrations.

The thought came with no binding sense of duty such as he had felt concerning the keeping of his vow.