They all got out at the captain's cottage, and 'Linda and Comethup lingered for a moment in the garden among the roses, while the captain went inside. When the captain came out again, smoking, the girl announced that she must go home at once; it was getting late. Comethup immediately offered to escort her, and she kissed the captain and went off with the boy down the road in the twilight. Now there were a hundred things which Comethup wished to say; a hundred indefinite and tantalizing matters to which he seemed vaguely to seek an answer. But the boy was more afraid of this slip of a girl than he had ever been of anything or any one in all his life; the very flutter of her dress in the semi-darkness, the light touch of a ribbon-end which blew out and whipped his hand once as he walked beside her, were disquieting and awe-inspiring things. He tried frantically, as he had tried before, to hark back to the old days when they had been children, and she had clung to him and cried upon his shoulder. But this was no child; this was something wonderful, that had her eyes and her voice, and a suggestion of her in many little ways; but it was a different being, and the child of old times might have been a ghost indeed, as he had once believed, for anything she had in common with this girl. Yet something must be said, and he plunged at the matter. "'Linda!" She looked round at him quickly. "Yes," she said. "I'm so awfully glad that--that you've been able to go with us there. I mean that I----" "Oh, it's been glorious! I can feel the swing of the carriage now, even while I'm walking. And it's been such a lovely day! Of course, it would have been better if Mr. Carlaw hadn't dropped down upon us; but it was very nice as it was." "It--it wouldn't have been half so nice if--if you hadn't been there," ventured Comethup, trembling. "I mean that I--oh, I haven't had a chance of saying how glad I was to find that you--that you remembered me, and--and liked me; you know I had all the messages you sent me while I was at school; I haven't forgotten one of them; I couldn't forget them." "Oh, yes; the captain always asked me if I had any message for you, and so--and so of course I sent them." "But you--you didn't mind sending them; I mean you liked sending them," said Comethup, hurriedly. "Why, of course; we had been such good friends, and I----" "Yes, that's it," said Comethup, eagerly. "We were always good friends, weren't we?--and although I've been away so long, still that doesn't make any difference, does it? What I wanted to say was that--that I hope you won't forget me when I've gone to London; that I shall be able to see you sometimes. You won't forget me, will you, 'Linda?"