to sea for a ship that never comes in.' She feels your separation from
Justin and your watching for his letters and your making your whole life
just a waiting time between his furloughs, more than you have any idea
of."

"But, Uncle Darcy!" exclaimed Barbara, "it would be just the same no
matter how many friends I had. They couldn't make me forget his absence."

"No, but they could get you interested in other things, and Georgina
would feel the difference, and be happier because you would not seem to
be waiting and anxious. There's some rare, good people in this town, old
friends of the family who tried to make you feel at home among them when
you first came."

"I know," admitted Barbara, slowly, "but I was so young then, and so
homesick that strangers didn't interest me. Now Georgina is old enough to
be thoroughly companionable, and our music and sewing and household
duties fill our days."

It was a subject they had discussed before, without either convincing the
other, and the old man had always gone away at such times with a feeling
of defeat. But this time as he took his leave, it was with the
determination to take the matter in hand himself. He felt he owed it to
the Judge to do that much for his grandchild. The usual crowds of summer
people would be coming soon. He had heard that Gray Inn was to be
reopened this summer. That meant there would probably be children at this
end of the beach. If Opportunity came that near to Georgina's door he
knew several ways of inducing it to knock. So he went off smiling to
himself.