I had a vague idea that it might have influenced in some way the reply you gave me then." He had come a step nearer and was standing over her.

She could hear his hurried breathing.
"Oh, no," she replied, in a calm voice full of friendliness.

"You are quite wrong.

The reason I gave you still holds good, and--and always will." In the brief silence that followed this clear statement of affairs, they both heard the rattle of the iron gate by the seawall.

Sep and his father were coming.