"Oh! yes, she is--when the weather is decent. I will make inquiries, and come and fetch you." "Thank you.--I suppose I may, uncle?" "What, my dear?" said the professor, rousing himself again. "Have my cousin to take care of me when I go to meet Bessie?" "Yes, certainly. I shall be much obliged to you, Mr Forbes. I am not quite so agile as I was at your age, though my gouty leg _is_ better." This conversation would not have been worth recording were it not that it led to the walk and the waiting on Monday.--They found, when they reached the region of steamers, that she had not yet been signalled, but her people were expecting the signal every minute. So Alec and Kate walked out along the pier, to pass the time. This pier runs down the side of the river, and a long way into the sea. It had begun to grow dark, and Alec had to take great care of Kate amongst the tramways, coils of rope, and cables that crossed their way. At length they got clear of these, and found themselves upon the pier, built of great rough stones--lonely and desert, tapering away into the dark, its end invisible, but indicated by the red light far in front. "It is a rough season of the year for a lady to come by sea," said Alec. "Bessie is very fond of the sea," answered Kate. "I hope you will like her, Mr Forbes." "Do you want me to like her better than you?" rejoined Alec. "Because if you do--" "Look how beautiful that red light is on the other side of the river," interrupted Kate. "And there is another further out." "When the man at the helm gets those two lights in a line," said Alec, "he may steer straight in, in the darkest night--that is, if the tide serves for the bar." "Look how much more glorious the red shine is on the water below!" said Kate. "It looks so wet!" returned Alec,--"just like blood." He almost cursed himself as he said so, for he felt Kate's hand stir as if she would withdraw it from his arm. But after fluttering like a bird for a moment, it settled again upon its perch, and there rested. The day had been quite calm, but now a sudden gust of wind from the north-east swept across the pier and made Kate shiver. Alec drew her shawl closer about her, and her arm further within his. They were now close to the sea. On the other side of the wall which rose on their left, they could hear the first of the sea-waves. It was a dreary place--no sound even indicating the neighbourhood of life. On one side, the river below them went flowing out to the sea in the dark, giving a cold sluggish gleam now and then, as if it were a huge snake heaving up a bend of its wet back, as it hurried away to join its fellows; on the other side rose a great wall of stone, beyond which was the sound of long waves following in troops out of the dark, and falling upon a low moaning coast. Clouds hung above the sea; and above the clouds two or three disconsolate stars.