I was never near guessing the truth."

"I could not help being a little different," Jeanne said shyly. "I
had never thought of it before, and though I am sure it made me
happy, I could not feel quite the same with you, especially as I
knew that you never thought of me like that."

"But you thought of me so afterwards, Jeanne?"

"Sometimes just for a moment, but I tried not to think of it,
Harry. We were so strangely placed, and it made it easier for you
to be a brother, and I felt sure you would not speak till we were
safely in England, and I was in Ernest's care. But," she said
with a little laugh, "you were nearly speaking that evening in the
cottage when you felt so despairing."

"Very nearly, Jeanne; I did so want comfort."

And so they talked happily together for an hour.

"I wonder Pierre does not come down to his boat," Harry said at
last. "There were several more things wanting doing to it. Why,
there he is calling. Surely it can never be dinner-time; but that's
what he says. It doesn't seem an hour since breakfast."

Jeanne hurried on into the hut.

"Why, Pierre," Harry said to the fisherman, who was waiting outside
for him, "I thought you were going on with your boat."