"You must go back," he said. "These matters will all come right in the end, Helen," he added kindly. "There is one thing I do not understand." "Oh, there are many things I do not understand!" "The thing that troubles me is that your father was here before you." "No--that isn't possible; I can't believe it." "He had engaged the _Stiletto_ before you came to Annandale; and while I was tracing you across the country he was already here somewhere. He amuses himself with the yacht." "Yes, I know; he is more of a menace that way--always in our sight--always where I must see him!" Her face, clearly lighted by the lanterns, was touched with anxiety and sorrow, and I saw her, with that prettiest gesture of woman's thousand graces--the nimble touch that makes sure no errant bit of hair has gone wandering--lift her hand to her head for a moment. The emerald ring flashed in the lantern light. I recall a thought that occurred to me there--that the widow's peak, so sharply marked in her forehead, was like the finger-print of some playful god. She turned to go, but he caught her hands. "Helen!" he cried softly. "No! Please don't!" She threw the nun's hood over her head and walked rapidly up the pier and stole away through the garden toward St. Agatha's. Gillespie listened for her step to die away, then he sighed heavily and bent down to draw up his canoe. When I touched him on the shoulder he rose and lifted the paddle menacingly. "Ah, so it's our young and gifted Irish friend!" he said, grinning. "No more sprinting stunts for me! I decline to run. The thought of asparagus and powdered glass saddens me. Look at these hands--these little hands still wrapped in mystical white rags. I have bled at every pore to give you entertainment, and now it's got to be twenty paces with bird-guns." "What mischief are you in now?" I demanded angrily. "I thought I warned you, Gillespie; I thought I even appealed to your chivalry." "My dear fellow, everything has changed. If a nun in distress appeals to me for help, I am Johnny-on-the-spot for Mother Church." "That was not the Sister, it was Miss Holbrook. I saw her distinctly; I heard--" "By Jove, this is gallant of you, Donovan! You are a marvelous fellow!" "I have a right to ask--I demand to know what it was you gave the girl." "Matinée tickets--the American girl without matinée tickets is a lonely pleiad bumping through the void." "You are a contemptible ass. Your conduct is scoundrelly. If you want to see Miss Holbrook, why don't you go to the house and call on her like a gentleman? And as for her--" "Yes; and as for her--?" He stepped close to me threateningly. "And as for her--?" he repeated. "As for her, she may go too far!" "She is not answerable to you. She's the finest girl in the world, and if you intimate--" "I intimate nothing. But what I saw and heard interested me a good deal, Gillespie."