Then Dan, with his candle behind the curtain, set a long light kiss upon the forehead of his darling, and with a heart so full, and yet so empty, took one more gaze at her, and then was gone.

With the basket in his hand, he dropped softly from his window upon the pile of seaweed at the back of the house--collected to make the walls wholesome--and then, caring little what his course might be, was led perhaps by the force of habit down the foot-path towards the beach.

So late at night, it was not likely that any one would disturb him there, and no one in the cottage which he had left would miss him before the morning.

The end of October now was near, the nights were long, and he need not hurry.

He might even lie down in his favourite boat, the best of her size in Springhaven, the one he had built among the rabbits.
There he could say good-bye to all that he had known and loved so long, and be off before dawn, to some place where he might earn his crust and think his thoughts..