“No, no, I cannot leave you. I must see and hear you now. If you knew what I have endured waiting for you, you would not be so cruel. Come and let us sit on the beach.” “I couldn't. I must go back; father will miss me. Besides, what have we to say? If I were only free and could tell you that I loved you, it would be different.” “Free! then you regret; if a woman wills it she can always free herself.” “No, it is harder than you think for a girl to get out of an engagement she has entered into, even if no absolute promise has been given.” “What do you mean? If you have entered into no formal engagement you are surely free.” “I don't know. Do you think so? I am afraid men think that a promise may be broken after marriage as well as before.” “You are wrong. Women who are jealous, who are old, tell girls that men are always unfaithful, but I'm sure that if I loved a girl I could never think of another. Do you really think I could think of any girl but you?” “I don't know. I wonder if all you say is true.” “Do you think me different from other men?” “Yes, but I cannot go on the beach; some other evening I will walk there with you.” “No, now, now--I want to tell you how and when I began to love. Do you remember when I used to spend part of my holidays at the Manor House when I was only so high, and you were all in short frocks? Come, there is much I want to say to you; I cannot part with you. Come, and let us sit on the shingle. Oh, the beautiful evening!” She could love him a little when she looked at him, but when he talked she lost interest in him. She had allowed him to take her hand, he had bent towards her, and she had let him kiss her; and then they talked of love--she of its bitterness and disappointments; he of its aspirations, and gradually their souls approached like shadows in the twilight, paused for a few vague moments, seemed as if lost in dreams. “I shall never forget this night! O my love, tell me one day you will be mine!” “I cannot promise, you must not ask me.” “We are meant for each other. It was not blind fate that cast us together. Does no voice tell you this? I hear it in my heart.” The abandonment, the mystery of the gathering dusk, touched Maggie's fancy. They were alone in the twilight, and it was full of the romance of a rising tide. “Never did I know such happiness; I am supremely happy, alone with you beneath this sky, listening to the vague, wild voice of the sea. It would be bitter sweet to die in such a triumphant hour. Supposing wewere to lie here and allow the sea to take us away.” “No, I don't want to die. I want to live and enjoy my life.” The answer fell a little chillingly on Frank's rapture. Then after a pause, Maggie said: “I think I have read of that somewhere--in anovel--lovers caught by the tide.”