‘Oh,’ cried the girl involuntarily, as her hand left her hat to travel down to her skirts. ‘Jack, let me go back to the saloon at once. I don’t want to stay here any longer.’ ‘Indeed I won’t. I see you very seldom now, and I mean to make the most of the opportunity. How long is it since you kissed me? At least three weeks. Don’t you think if you brought your face a little nearer this way, you wouldn’t feel the wind so much? Your cheeks are getting positively crimson with it. You’d better take advantage of my offer, and shelter under my lee.’ ‘No, no!’ exclaimed Alice, half in fun and half in earnest, ‘I don’t want to kiss you, Jack. I can manage much better by myself.’ ‘Or with the help of Captain Lovell,’ he answered. ‘Isn’t that true, Alice? It isn’t the help that’s disagreeable to you, it’s the helper.’ ‘Oh, Jack, how can you say such a thing, when we’ve known each other for so long?’ ‘Perhaps we’ve known each other _too_ long, and have come to know each other too well, Alice. However, I won’t tease you. I’ve often refused your kisses, so it’s only fair you should have the option of refusing mine now and then. And I suppose you’re tired of them. It’s no wonder.’ Alice did not know what to say. She longed to tell him the truth, but she dared not. She was too fond of him to care to see his bright face clouded by disappointment, and yet she knew now that she could never marry him. Oh dear, she sighed to herself, what should she do? ‘Jack,’ she commenced timidly, ‘I think you’d soon be sick of me. I don’t think I’m a very nice girl. In fact, I’m _sure_ I’m not. And I shall make a worse wife. I’ve almost made up my mind never to marry at all.’ Jack burst out laughing. He had known it would come to this at last. He had watched the confession drawing nearer day by day. And he was not sorry for it. Only he determined that Alice should not have it all her own way. He must have some fun out of her first. ‘What are you talking about?’ he replied, with affected earnestness. ‘You are a great deal too modest, my darling. You’ll make the very best and sweetest wife in all the world. _I’m_ the proper judge of that. Besides, don’t forget that you are pledged to me, and no power on earth will make me release you from your promise.’ Alice sighed audibly, and looked over the sea. ‘But would it be right, Jack,’ she said presently, ‘for me to marry, if I knew I could not fulfil the duties of a wife?’ ‘Much you know about the duties of a wife!’ exclaimed Jack merrily. ‘You can fulfil all _I_ shall require from you: I’ll take my oath of that.’ ‘Mother says,’ continued Alice solemnly, ‘that I am utterly unfit for any of the graver requirements of life, and that when my father sees how frivolous and pleasure-seeking I am, he is sure to refuse his consent to my leaving home.’