They have none of them ever cared greatly for Alderney, and they always speak of it as a remote, unfriendly, melancholy, and slow little place, lacking the gem-like beauty and joyous vitality of Sark.  But then one’s outlook is always coloured by one’s inlook, and an overcast mind sees all things shadowed.

They lunched at the Scott Hotel, in the garden, and felt better than they had done for two days when their feet once more trod the deck of the Courier.

The southern cliffs were filmy blue in the distance, Ortach and the Casquets were dim against the horizon, and Charles and Miss Penny stood together in the stern looking back over the long straight track of the boat, and thinking both of the lonely one in the mean little house in St. Anne.  Margaret and Graeme had stood watching for a time, and had then stolen away forward.  Their outlook was ahead, where Sark was rising boldly out of the blue waters.

“I doubt if we’ll ever hear anything more of him,” said Charles, with a sigh at thought of it all.

“You will always remember that you have done your duty by him.  You could not have done more.”

“You have been very kind to me all through, very kind, all of you.  And you especially....  Hennie—­will you marry me?”

And she looked up at him with a happy face, and said quietly, “Yes, I will.  I believe we can make one another very happy.”

“I’m sure we can.  Come along and tell the others;” and they also turned from the past and went forward.

WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

Hearts in Exile._

With Photogravure Frontispiece by HAROLD COPPING.  THIRD EDITION.  Crown 8vo, cloth, 6s.

“Exceptionally powerful, vivid, and realistic....  Sketched with a generous hand and bold touches, the characters hold trie reader’s sympathies throughout.  The most graphic, vigorous, and lifelike presentment of Russian administrative barbarity which we recollect to have ever come across.”—­Daily Telegraph.

A Princess of Vascovy.

Crown 8vo, cloth, 6s.

“Mr. Oxenham tells a good exciting story with great swing and zest.  It seems almost unnecessary to recommend a story that is in every way worthy of the pen that produced ‘Barbe of Grand Bayou.’  ’A Princess of Vascovy’ is just as picturesquely romantic and just as full of incident and adventure as Mr. Oxenham’s most famous work.”—­Athenaum.

White Fire.

Red cloth, 2s. net; red leather, 2s. 6d. net.

“‘White Fire’ combines religion and adventure; but the date is modern, and the admirable missionary and his undaunted wife and comrades protect their converts in the South Seas from kidnappers and other pests with the aid of Maxims and Winchester rifles.  Mr. John Oxenham has already proved his descriptive and analytic powers, and these strong-hearted champions of morality are not less original than their surroundings are romantic.  A tidal wave is among the trials of the hero’s constancy.  The illustrations by Mr. Grenville Manton are good.”—­Athenaum.