Nell laughed as the boat ran beside the jetty slip, and she rose.
"Do you think you will? Perhaps you will be too much amused, engrossed
with whatever you are doing. I know I should be, if--if I were to leave
Shorne Mills, and go into the big world."
"You do yourself an injustice," he said, rather curtly; and she laughed,
and flushed a little.
"I deserve that," she said. "Of course, I should not forget Shorne
Mills; but you----Ah, it is different!"
She sprang out before he could get on shore and offer his hand.
"I shall want her to-morrow morning at eleven, Brownie," she said to the
old fisherman who was preparing to take the _Annie Laurie_ to her
moorings.
He touched his forehead.
"Aye, aye, Miss Nell! And you'll not be wanting me?" he asked, as a
matter of form, and with a glance at Drake, who stood waiting with his
hands in his pockets.
"Oh, yes, please," she said. "I forgot; Mr. Vernon is going away
to-morrow," she added cheerfully; and she began to sing under her breath
again as they climbed upward. But Drake did not sing, and his face was
gloomy.
Throughout that evening, Mrs. Lorton contributed to the entertainment of
her guest by admiring her bracelet and deploring his departure.
"Of course I am aware that you must be anxious to go," she said, with a
deep sigh. "It has been dull, I've no doubt, very dull; and I am so
sorry that the state of my health has prevented me going out and about
with you. There are so many places of interest in the neighborhood which
we could have visited; but I am sure you will make allowances for an
invalid. And we will hope that this is not your last visit to Shorne
Mills. I need not say that we shall be glad, delighted, indeed, at any
time----"
Every now and then Drake murmured his acknowledgments; but he made the
due responses absently. He was left entirely at Mrs. Lorton's mercy that
evening--for Nell had suddenly remembered that she ought really to go
and see old Brownie's mother, a lady whose age was set down at anything
between a hundred and a hundred and ten, and Dick was in his "workshop"
cleaning the new and spotless gun.
Nell did not come in till late, was full of Grandmother Brownie's
sayings and wonderfully maintained faculties, and ran off to bed very
soon, with a cheerful "Good night, Mr. Vernon. Dick has ordered the trap
for nine o'clock."