CHAPTER V.
THE MAN FROM THE SEA.
Well, I was never one to sit groaning over a cracked pot.

If it could not be mended, then it is the part of a man to say no more of it.
For weeks I had an aching heart; indeed, it is a little sore now, after all these years and a happy marriage, when I think of it.

But I kept a brave face on me; and, above all, I did as I had promised that day on the hillside.

I was as a brother to her, and no more: though there were times when I had to put a hard curb upon myself; for even now she would come to me with her coaxing ways, and with tales about how rough Jim was, and how happy she had been when I was kind to her; for it was in her blood to speak like that, and she could not help it.
But for the most part Jim and she were happy enough.

It was all over the countryside that they were to be married when he had passed his degree, and he would come up to West Inch four nights a week to sit with us.