Time had, indeed, stolen a march on the vicar's fair daughter, while she had been discussing this interesting subject with her youthful friend and gossip, the sister of her sailor lover; for the full-orbed moon had already reared her bright face over the swelling waves, and was pouring a flood of radiance through the bay, and illuminating the high-arched windows of All-Saints' church on the distant dark promontory of Dunwich cat-cliff. Elizabeth turned resolutely about to pursue a homeward path; but, at the little turnstile leading to the vicarage, which then with its neat garden and paddock adjoined the western boundary of the church-yard, she encountered Arthur Blackbourne and her brother Edward. "Where have you been cruising out of your course, girls, for the last age?" cried Arthur: "here have I been giving chase to you both in all directions, till I have hardly a leg to stand on!" "We have only been for a walk to Easton Broad," said Elizabeth. "A walk to Easton Broad, the very evening of my return, and without me!" "How should I know you were home?" "There were other girls in the town who contrived to find it out;--ay, and pretty girls too--but they took the trouble of keeping a look-out for the Jolly Nicholas," rejoined Arthur, reproachfully. "So did Bessy, I am sure!" exclaimed the boy Edward, with great vivacity; "why, she wholly crazed us about the Jolly Nicholas, and sent me a dozen times a day to ask our old pilots at the station, whether she were in sight, till they were so sick of the Jolly Nicholas and me, that they got as savage as so many sea-bears, and gave me the name of 'Old Nick' for my pains." "Joan Bates was on the beach to welcome me on shore when I landed," pursued Arthur. "Just like her; she is always so forward," retorted Elizabeth. "It would be well if some people thought as much of me as Joan Bates," continued Arthur. "And if you have nothing more agreeable to say to me, Arthur Blackbourne, I will wish you good night," said Elizabeth. "Come, Edward." "You are in a mighty hurry, I think; when you have not seen me for six months, and I have thought of you, sleeping and waking, all that time, and now you won't speak one kind word to a poor fellow!" said the young sailor. "I have spoken quite as many as you deserve," retorted Elizabeth; "if you want flattery, you may go to Joan Bates." "And so I will, if you are not more lovingly disposed the next time we meet," said Arthur; "but you will be better tempered, I hope, at Dunwich fair to-morrow." "I am not going to Dunwich fair." "Not going to Dunwich fair, Bessy! a pretty joke, i'faith, when the Royal Anne is new painted and rigged with her best flags and canvas all ready to take us; and we have the prospect of a glorious day to-morrow." "No matter; I shall not go." "How very perverse;--just to vex me, I suppose!" "You know my father does not approve of fairs."