"You had better get up," said the Man on the Beach, after a
moment's thought, "and come up to the cabin. I cannot offer you a
change of garments, but you can dry them by the fire."

They all rose together, and again said in chorus, "James!" but this
time with an evident effort to recall some speech or action
previously resolved upon and committed to memory. The elder lady
got so far as to clasp her hands and add, "You have not forgotten
us--James, oh, James!"; the younger gentleman to attempt a brusque
"Why, Jim, old boy," that ended in querulous incoherence; the young
lady to cast a half-searching, half-coquettish look at him; and the
old gentleman to begin, "Our desire, Mr. North"--but the effort was
futile. Mr. James North, standing before them with folded arms,
looked from the one to the other.

"I have not thought much of you for a twelvemonth," he said,
quietly, "but I have not forgotten you. Come!"

He led the way a few steps in advance, they following silently. In
this brief interview they felt he had resumed the old dominance and
independence, against which they had rebelled; more than that, in
this half failure of their first concerted action they had changed
their querulous bickerings to a sullen distrust of each other, and
walked moodily apart as they followed James North into his house.
A fire blazed brightly on the hearth; a few extra seats were
quickly extemporized from boxes and chests, and the elder lady,
with the skirt of her dress folded over her knees,--looking not
unlike an exceedingly overdressed jointed doll,--dried her flounces
and her tears together. Miss Maria took in the scant appointments