As soon as she was gone the two women, anxious and uneasy, rose and dressed that they might be ready.  Ready for what they scarcely knew; but they had the feeling common enough when nothing can possibly be done, that it would be a comfort to be prepared to do something.

They found Mrs. Hall superintending the laying of the breakfast-table, and Mr. Strafford hearing their voices came out of his study and joined them.  He had not the least inclination to sympathise with the fears in which Mrs. Costello was a little disposed to indulge, with regard to the safety of the boat; but he confessed a doubt as to its arrival before the hour named, or indeed that day at all.  This uncertainty threw a shadow over the whole party.  It was impossible to avoid making pauses in their conversation whenever the wind seemed either to rise more fiercely, or to be lulled into a momentary calm; and after breakfast was over, and Mrs. Hall in cloak and hood had started for her school, they began to make frequent journeys to the windows, and interrupt their talk to say to each other,

“There is less drift, I think.”

“Yes; certainly it is clearer.  I can see the water.”  Or,

“The wind is surely higher than ever, and it will be against them.”

“On the contrary, it is almost directly favourable, but the question is whether they would venture out at all in such a storm.”

At last, however, towards twelve o’clock the wind did unmistakably begin to abate.  Mr. Strafford had been out, and on his return affirmed that the storm was almost over.  It might return again towards night, but if the boatmen knew their business, they should be able to take advantage of the next few hours and reach the island while the calm lasted.

“There is no sign of their arrival at present then?” Mrs. Costello asked anxiously.

“I have not been round the island,” Mr. Strafford answered.  “No one seems to have seen anything of a boat at all.  However, they would need to be close in shore to be distinguishable through the drift.”

“But it seems that there is very little chance of their being here by three o’clock.  Would not it be better to decide that in any case the funeral will not be till to-morrow?”

“I think it would.  I intend going by-and-by up the island, and will take care to arrange that first, and also about the reception of the boat when it does arrive.”

Mrs. Costello looked up anxiously.

“Are you going quite to the other end of the island?” she asked.

“Yes; to your old house.  The woman who lives there is very ill, and, you know, I am doctor and parson both in one.”

“Will you take me with you?”

“You!  Impossible!  You would be frozen to death.”

“It would not hurt me; and I confess I have so little control of myself to-day that sitting here quietly by the fire is just the hardest thing I could have to do.”