“Shall we sit down and talk?” she said gently.

She could not be other than gentle with him.  The appeal of his weakness was greater than any display of strength.  She could not but respond to it.

He set her free and dropped down heavily upon a rock, leaning his head in his hands.

She waited a few moments beside him; then, as he remained silent, she bent towards him.

“Piers, what is it?”

With a sharp movement he straightened himself, and turned his face to the sea.

“I’m a fool,” he said, speaking with an odd, unsteady vehemence.  “Fact is, I’ve been out all night on this beastly shore.  I’ve walked miles.  And I suppose I’m tired.”

He made the confession with a shamefaced laugh, still looking away to the horizon.

“All night!” Avery repeated in astonishment.  “But, Piers!”

He nodded several times, emphatically.  “And those infernal sea-birds have been squawking along with those thrice-accursed crows ever since day-break.  I’d like to wring their ugly necks, every jack one of ’em!”

Avery laughed in spite of herself.  “We all feel peevish sometimes,” she said, as one of the offenders sailed over-head with a melancholy cry.  “But haven’t you had any breakfast?  You must be starving.”

“I am!” said Piers.  “I feel like a wolf.  But you needn’t be afraid to sit down.  I shan’t gobble you up this time.”

She heard the boyish appeal in his voice and almost unconsciously she yielded to it.  She sat down on the rock beside him, but he instantly slipped from it and stretched himself in a dog-like attitude at her feet.

His chin was propped in his hands, his face turned to the white sand on which he lay.  She looked down at his black head with more than compassion in her eyes.  It was horribly difficult to snub this boy-lover of hers.

She sat and waited silently for him to speak.

He dropped one hand at length and began to dig his brown fingers into the powdery sand with irritable energy; but a minute or more passed before very grumpily he spoke.

“I’ve had a row with my grandfather.  We both of us behaved like wild beasts.  In the end, he thought he was going to give me a caning, and that was more than I could stand.  I smashed his ruler for him and bolted.  I should have struck him with it if I hadn’t.  And after that, I cleared out and came here.  And I’m not going back.”

So with blunt defiance he made the announcement, and as he did so, it came to Avery suddenly and quite convincingly that she had been the cause of the quarrel.  A shock of dismay went through her.  She had not anticipated this.  She felt that the suspicion must be verified or refuted at once.

“Piers,” she said quickly, “why did you quarrel with your grandfather?  Was it because of your affair with Miss Rose?”

“I never had an affair with Miss Rose,” said Piers rather sullenly.  He dug up a small stone, and flung it with vindictive force at the face of the cliff.  “Ask her, if you don’t believe me!”