She scarcely looked at the ring, so great was her embarrassment.  That the present of one lover should be brought back to her by another was an awkward, almost humiliating circumstance, Yet she was glad as well as ashamed.  “Oh, Mr. Trelyon, how can I thank you?” she said in a low earnest voice.  “All you seem to care for is to make other people happy.  And the trouble you have taken, too!”

She forgot to look at the ring, even when he pointed out how the washing in the sea had made it bright.  She never asked about the dredging.  Indeed, she was evidently disinclined to speak of this matter in any way, and kept the finger with the ring on it out of sight.

“Mr. Trelyon,” she said then with equal steadiness of voice, “I am going to ask something more from you; and I am sure you will not refuse it.”

“I know,” said he hastily; “and let me have the first word.  I have been thinking over our position during this trip to Plymouth and back.  Well, I think I have become a nuisance to you—­Wait a bit, let me say my say in my own way.  I can see that I only embarrass you when I call on you, and that the permission you gave me is only leading to awkwardness and discomfort.  Mind, I don’t think you are acting fairly to yourself or to me in forbidding me to mention again what I told you.  I know you’re wrong.  You should let me show you what sort of a life lies before you—­But there!  I promised to keep clear of that.  Well, I will do what you like; and if you’d rather have me stay away altogether, I will do that.  I don’t want to be a nuisance to you.  But mind this, Wenna, I do it because you wish it:  I don’t do it because I think any man is bound to respect an engagement which—­which—­which, in fact, he doesn’t respect.”

His eloquence broke down, but his meaning was clear.  He stood there before her, ready to accept her decision with all meekness and obedience, but giving her frankly to understand that he did not any the more countenance or consider as a binding thing her engagement to Mr. Roscorla.

“Mind you,” he said, “I am not quite as indifferent about all this as I look.  It isn’t the way of our family to put their hands in their pockets and wait for orders.  But I can’t fight with you.  Many a time I wish there was a man in the case—­then he and I might have it out—­but as it is, I suppose I have got to do what they say, Wenna, and that’s the long and short of it.”

She did not hesitate.  She went forward and offered him her hand, and with her frank eyes looking him in the face she said, “You have said what I wished to say, and I feared I had not the courage to say it.  Now you are acting bravely.  Perhaps at some future time we may become friends again—­oh yes, and I do hope that—­but in the mean time you will treat me as if I were a stranger to you.”

“That is quite impossible,” said he decisively.  “You ask too much of me, Wenna.”  “Would not that be the simpler way?” she said, looking at him again with the frank and earnest eyes; and he knew she was right.