Miss Churchill put on her bonnet, and they were soon down upon the beach under the promontory; the gravelly beach was clean and cool, and the waters blue and clear, and sparkling in the beams of the early sun, and all the golden clouds were reflected on their bosom. The little skiff was soon unmoored and they were out upon the bay; as they receded from the shore, Lieutenant Wilde stood up and turned to look upon the promontory, or rather peak, surmounted by the old hall; his eye rested a moment upon the towering object, and then wandered down to where the promontory descended into the heath, and further on, where the heath flattened into the moor. He had just said, while gazing on the scene, “I am no agriculturist, Miss Churchill, yet I never saw what _I_ think to be so fine an estate in all the gifts of nature as this—the moor with its wild fowl, the river and the bay with their fish and their oyster-banks, the forest in the background with its wood and its game—it is inconceivable how the property has been suffered to—” and then he stopped, started, and gazed at an object on the water between them and the land— “What is the matter, Augustus?” said Emily, attempting to rise. He pushed her down into her seat again, while he continued to gaze upon the floating object as it was borne upon the waves towards the beach. “What is the matter, Augustus? What are you looking at; one would think you saw a shark.” And now Sophie’s brown eyes were raised in silent inquiry. Augustus sat down, muttering “Nothing, nothing,” and pulled for a distant part of the shore, about midway the heath, between the promontory and the moor. “Are you going to land?” asked Emily. “Be quiet, will you,” muttered he, pinching her arm and glancing at Sophie, who had relapsed into her abstraction. Not until they had nearly reached the beach, had Sophie noticed their altered course; then she looked up and inquired, “Where are you going? Why this is not a good place to fish.” Lieutenant Wilde answered, “We think we have made it too late in the morning—that the sun is too high and too hot for you, Miss Churchill; and we think we will return to the hall.” Sophie remonstrated, declared she felt no ill effects from the heat, &c.; but was overruled as usual. Emily now asserting that she felt the rays of the sun too strong, they landed and walked to the hall. When they reached the parlor, Emily _purposely_ removed her bonnet and scarf _there_, and Sophie taking them, carried them up stairs to put away. When she had left the room, “_Now_, I followed your lead in coming home—tell me _why_ you came; what was the matter with you—what did you see on the water?” “You told me that Miss Churchill was very nervous and sensitive, did you not?” “I told you, that of late she is—naturally Sophie has a strong mind.” “Well, Emily, the object I saw upon the water was a dead body.” “Merciful Heaven! are you _sure_?” “_Certain._ I saw it distinctly—it was being wafted towards the beach.”