Part 35 (1/2)

Why, of course! there were plenty of wonderful Marys Notwithstanding, I could not altogether shake off the feeling of regret that ca lady over the as called Mary

Had her nauerite, or Dorothea, Millicent or even Rosemary, I would have been contented and would have considered the naarden Mary!

Oh, well!--what mattered it anyway? The na, wavy, golden hair, nor did it change the colour or lessen the transparency of her eyes It did not interfere with her deft fingers as they travelled so artistically over the keyboard of her piano; although I kept wishi+ng, in a half-wishful way, that it could have changed her tantalising and exasperating de, we had played antagonists, and froonists had been distasteful to me

What was it in me? I wondered,--as it in her that caused the htest notion, unless it were a resentfulness intaken only for what I, myself, had chosen to become,--store-clerk in an out-of-the-way settlement; or an annoyance in her because one of my station should place himself on terms of social equality with every person he happened to e Bremner to her True! Then,--she was merely Mary Grant to me Mary Grant she was and Mary Grant she would doubtless reed it to probably--Mary-so-worse

As I day-dreamed, I felt the air about ht, the sea had been running into the Bay choppy and white-tipped, but noas as level as the face of a h everywhere on the surface of the water loose driftwood floated

I letrock upon which I had been lying I dropped noiselessly far down into the deep water I caone fro leisurely, interested only in hts and the water i a bit ahead attracted my attention

I was half-way between Rita's Isle and the shore at the ti At first, I took it to be part of a se, but as I drew nearer I was quite surprised to find that it was an earlyswimmer like myself Nearer still, and I discovered that the swimmer was a woman whose hair was bound securely by a multi-coloured, heavy, silk muffler, such as certain types of London Johnnies affected for a tione at least half a mile, for that was the distance to the nearest point of land and there was no boat of any kind in her tracks

Half a o! Quite a swim for a lady!

Afraid lest it should prove ht to recognise as the more delicately constituted of the sexes, I drew closer to the swimmer

When only a few yards behind, she turned round with a startled excla ht had she to run risks of this nature? Was there not plenty of water for her to swim in near the shore where she would be within easy hail of the land should she becorily, I narrowed the space between us

She had recognised limpse

”Are you not rather far from the shore, Miss Grant?” I inquired bruskly

”Thank you! Not a bit too far,” she exclaih the water

She ns of weariness, except it were in a catching of her voice, which al swi, despite the evident fact that she was not at all speedy

”But you have no right to risk your life out here, when you do not know the coast,” I retorted

”What right have you to question o away”

”I spoke for your own good,” I continued ”Thereof Besides, the driftwood itself is dangerous this ”

She did not reply for a bit, but kept steadily on

When I took up my position a few yards to the left and on a level with her, she turned on nantly

”Excuse me, Sir Impertinence,--but do you take me for a child or a fool? Are you one of those inflated individuals who iines that ?”