Carolyn did not speak, and he walked away,--walked with perfect steadiness, though he had talked thus. In fact, he was as much affected by his sudden news as by his champagne. Carolyn remained a few moments where he had left her. She was thinking that if Lady Maxwell died, then surely this time Prudence would herself become Lady Maxwell. But how could her cousin consent to pass her life with a man like that. Good-natured? Yes, perhaps, but a mere animal? Then the girl caught herself comparing the Englishman with Rodney Lawrence. She always compared every man with Lawrence, much to the advantage of the latter. After a few moments Carolyn returned to the house. She walked restlessly up the stairs, and then into the tower which overlooked the ocean. She opened the window next the water and leaned out of it; the warm air swept over her as it rocked the tower. How dark it was! And to-morrow she was to be married. At that moment it seemed to her that she would never see Rodney again,--that on this night all life, that was really life, would stop for her. She roused herself quickly from such morbid fancyings. The rack of cloud was rushing over the heavens, the stars shining now and then between the dark masses. Carolyn's gaze was fastened on the sea, which lay black and strangely still beneath the wind; but a southerly wind was like a calming hand on the water of this part of the bay. "There is not the least danger,--not the very least," she said, aloud. "They know how to manage a boat. Rodney will only go a little way. In an hour or two they will be back." So the girl resolved not to yield to any such imaginings. She hastened down to the room where her mother and aunt still sat over the smouldering fire on the hearth. She walked calmly up to her mother's side and resumed her place on the footstool by her. "Have they come home yet?" asked Prudence's mother. "No; it's hardly time." "There's one consolation," said the elder lady, "nothing ever happens to Prue; she'll do the strangest things, and nothing ever happens to her. We needn't worry in the least." "No, not in the least," responded Carolyn. She sat at her mother's feet and watched the ashes gather over the coals on the hearth. The women talked fitfully, and the girl tried to listen to what they said. One of them recalled how nervous she had been when her own wedding-day had been set. She said that, though she never doubted her lover in the least, she had a dreadful conviction that something would happen to keep him from coming to be married. Here the speaker laughed as she went on: "My father said that if I had such an opinion as that of Leander Ffolliott I'd better never marry him, even if he did come." "But he was there,--he was not a minute late?" asked Carolyn, with uncontrollable interest. Her mother smiled at her, as she answered, complacently, "He was early; of course he was early. But why do you look so pale, Caro?"