There was nobody about, and he took possession of her arm as if it were the most natural thing in the world. And the funny part about it was that she did not feel the least surprise that he should do so. How he came to be there she had not the faintest idea; she did not even wonder about it. She only knew that his coming filled her with a delicious sense of happiness, and that the song of the sea sounded sweeter than it had done before. “I arrived at your hotel just after you had gone,” Geoffrey explained. “So Herbert sent me on to meet you. I was in church, quite near you, all the time; but you looked so absorbed that I didn’t like to bring you down from heaven to earth until it was absolutely necessary. Celia, has Lady Marjorie said anything to you about me lately?” “She told me that somebody I knew was staying at Cliff Terrace and intended coming to see me; but she did not say it was you. I was expecting the somebody all day.” “Were you? Oh, if I had only known that you were here, I would have come round early this morning. Lady Marjorie has been very good to me; she has made me see what a timid ass I’ve been. It was not entirely my fault, though. Stannard would have it that you were engaged to Lord Bexley; and I was so busy looking after my poor aunt and Miss Thornton that----” “Miss Thornton!” interpolated the girl, suddenly shrinking away from him. “I had forgotten Miss Thornton.” Her sky was overcast again. “You don’t know her, do you?” asked Geoffrey, wonderingly. “She is Stannard’s _fiancée_.” Celia drew a deep sigh. _Stannard’s fiancée!_ That made all the difference. But how foolish she had been to have made such a mistake! “She used to be subject to fits,” her lover went on to explain. “But fortunately I have been able to effect a complete cure. She has been under my supervision for some months.” “And she is going to marry Dick Stannard?” Celia asked, anxious to hear a corroboration of the statement. “Yes, she is going to marry Dick,” he replied with satisfaction. “But I don’t want to speak about Miss Thornton just now. Oh, you dear, sweet girl, how nice it is to be talking to you like this after such a long time!” This with an affecting pressure of her hand. “You do love me just a wee bit, don’t you, dear?” “I love you more than a wee bit, Geoffrey,” she answered, in the tone of one who makes a great confession. “I have loved you ever since that night when----” “When I kissed you under the mistletoe? I remember. I’ve been living on that kiss for four years. I am just aching and hungering for another one. I am going to have it here and now.” “Geoffrey!” she protested. “In the open street!” “I don’t care,” he answered with determination. “There is nobody to see except Nature, and Nature keeps her secrets well. Ah”--as he put his desire into execution--“that was beautiful. But tell me, darling, if you really loved me all that time ago, why did you become engaged to another fellow?” “Because you--you--didn’t----”