down had her foot as he had found it whatever s years might have made him look by day in the dusk of evening he was fairly as a pleasing man of no marked antiquity his outline but little from what it had been when he was half his years he was well preserved still upright shaven in movement wore a tightly suit which set off a naturally slight figure in brief he might have been of any age as he appeared to her at this moment she talked to him with the co equality of one who assumed a sketch of a temperament him to be not far ahead of her own generation and as the growing darkness obscured him more and more he adopted her assumption of his age with increasing boldness of tone the harmless freedom of the watering place miss which had plainly acquired during her at the school helped greatly in this r e of which he was not to play not a word did he say about being a native of the island still more carefully did he conceal the fact of his having her grandmother and engaged himself to marry that attractive lady he found that she had come out upon the rocks through the same little private door from the lawn of the modem castle which had frequently him to the same spot in years long past accompanied her across the grounds almost to the entrance of the mansion � the place being now far better kept and planted than when he had it as a lonely tenant almost indeed restored to the order and neatness which had it when he was a boy like her she was too inexperienced to be reserved and during this little climb leaning the well beloved upon his arm there was time for a great deal of confidence when he had her farewell and she had entered leaving him in the dark a rush of sadness through s soul swept down all the temporary pleasure he had found in the charming girl s company had sprung from the ground there and then with an to of restoration to youth on the usual terms of his firm the might have consented to sell a part of himself which he felt less immediate need of than of a ruddy lip and cheek and an brow but what could only have been treated as a folly by was almost a sorrow for him why was he bom with such a temperament and this interest could hardly have arisen even with but for a of circumstances only possible here the three the second something like the first the third a of the first at all events were the of the island customs of and of union under which conditions the type of feature was almost uniform from parent to child through generations so that till quite to have seen one native man and woman was to have a sketch of a temperament seen the whole population of that isolated rock so nearly cut off from the his own and the sense of his early did all the rest he turned gloomily away and let himself out of the before walking along the couple of miles of road which would conduct him to the little station on the shore he to the rocks whereon he had found her and searched about for the which had made a prisoner of this terribly edition of the beloved kneeling down beside the spot he inserted his hand and ultimately by much withdrew the little boot he mused over it for a moment put it in his pocket and followed the stony route to the street of wells the well beloved the renewed image burns itself in here was nothing to hinder in calling upon the new s mother as often as he should choose beyond the five miles of intervening railway and additional mile or two of over the heights of the island two days later therefore he repeated his journey and knocked about tea time at the widow s door as he had feared the daughter was not at home he sat down beside the old sweetheart who having her mother in past days had now herself in her child produced the boot from his pocket then tis you who helped out of her said mrs with surprise yes my dear friend and perhaps i shall ask you to help me out of mine before i have done a sketch of a temperament but never mind that now what did she tell you about the adventure mrs was looking thoughtfully upon him well tis rather strange it should have been you sir she replied she seemed to be a good deal interested i thought it might have been a younger man � a much younger man it might have been as far as feelings were concerned � now i ll to the point at once i have known your daughter any number of years when i talk to her i can anticipate every turn of her thought every sentiment every act so long did i study those things in your mother and in you therefore i do not require to learn her she was learnt by me in her previous now don t be shocked i am willing to marry her � i should be to do it if there would be nothing preposterous about it or that would seem like a man making himself too much of a fool and so degrading her in i can make her comparatively rich as you know and i would indulge her every whim there is the idea put it would set right something in my mind that has been wrong for forty years after my death she would have plenty of freedom and plenty of means to enjoy it the well beloved mrs seemed only a little sur certainly not shocked well if i didn 