"I am a veritable drunkard with tea, and as for music--ask Jake, out there sitting on the cliffs in the darkness, if I like music. He knows. Ask me, as I lie in my hammock here, night after night, waiting for you to begin,--if Jake likes music, and the answer will satisfy you just how much both of us appreciate it. "But, I am very sorry I shall be unable to avail myself of your kind invitation to come to-morrow evening." My new friend could not disguise her surprise. I almost fancied I traced a flush of embarrassment on her cheeks. "No!" was all she said, and she said it ever so quietly. "I have a pupil coming to-morrow evening for her first real lesson in English Grammar. She has waited long for it. The book I desired to start her in with has only arrived. She would be terribly disappointed if I were now to postpone that lesson." "Your pupil is a lady?" "Yes!--a sweet little girl called Rita Clark, who lives at the ranch at the other side of the Crescent. She comes here often. You must have noticed her." "What!--that pretty, olive-skinned girl, with the dark hair and dark eyes? "Yes! I have noticed her and I have never since ceased to envy her complexion and her woodland beauty. I would give all I have to look as she does. "You are most fortunate in your choice of a pupil?" "Yes! Rita is a good-hearted little girl," I lauded unthinkingly. "I spoke to her once out on the Island," said Miss Grant, "but she seemed shy. She looked me over from head to heel, then ran off without a word. "Well,--Mr. Bremner, days and evenings are much alike to some of us in Golden Crescent. Shall we say Wednesday evening?" "I shall be more than pleased, Miss Grant," I exclaimed, betraying the boyish eagerness I felt, "if----?" "If?" she inquired. "If you will return the compliment by allowing me to take you out some evening in the boat to the end of Rita's Isle there, where the sea trout are,--or away out to the passage by The Ghoul where the salmon are now running. I have seen you fishing very often and with the patience of Job, yet not once have I seen you bring home a fish. Now, Rita Clark can bring in twenty or thirty trout in less than an hour, any time she has a fancy to. "I should like to break your bad luck, for I think the trouble can only be with the tackle you use." Mary Grant's brown eyes danced with pleasure, and in the lamplight, I noticed for the first time, how very fair her skin was,--cream and pink roses,--tanned slightly where the sun had got at it, but without a blemish, without even a freckle, and this despite the fact that she seldom took any precautions against the depredations of Old Sol. "I shall be glad indeed. You are very kind; for what you propose will be a treat of treats, especially if we catch some fish."