"Will you--will you come and see me some day?" she asked him shyly.

Her tone was rather of request than invitation, and Durant was curiously
touched. He had a feeling that she awaited his reply with eagerness.

He smiled for the first time.

"With pleasure," he said courteously, "if the path is easy and the
distance not too great for my powers."

"It is quite close," she said readily, "hardly a stone's throw from
here--a little wooden cottage--the first you come to."

"And you live quite alone?" Durant said.

"I like it best," she assured him.

"Will you tell me your name?" he asked.

"My name is Molly," she answered quietly.

"Nothing else?" said Durant with a puzzled frown.

"Nothing else, sir," she said, with her air of womanly dignity.

He made no outward comment, but inwardly he wondered. Was this odd
little, dark-haired creature some nameless waif of the sea brought up on
the charity of the fisher-folk, he asked himself.