She turned away to conceal her indignant color.

She could share the household work with a squaw and Chinaman, she could fetch wood and water.

Catlin had patronizingly seen her doing it, but to dance to his vulgar piping--never! She was not long in reaching the sands that now lay before her, warm, sweet-scented from short beach grass, stretching to a dim rocky promontory, and absolutely untrod by any foot but her own.

It was this virginity of seclusion that had been charming to her girlhood; fenced in between the impenetrable hedge of scrub-oaks on the one side, and the lifting green walls of breakers tipped with chevaux de frise of white foam on the other, she had known a perfect security for her sports and fancies that had captivated her town-bred instincts and native fastidiousness.

A few white-winged sea-birds, as proud, reserved, and maiden-like as herself, had been her only companions.