"Why--do you get them ?" she whispered almost inarticulately.
He did not answer for a moment.

Then: "Come down to my place!" he said.
"It's but a step." She made a swift gesture that had in it something of recoil, but the next moment, without a word, she began to walk down the slope.
He trod through the growth beside her, barefooted, unfaltering.

His blue eyes looked straight before him; they were unwavering and resolute as the man himself.
They reached the cottage.

He made her enter it before him, and he followed, but he did not close the door.

Instead, he stopped and deliberately hooked it back.
Then, with the low call of the sea filling the humble little room, he turned round to the girl, who stood with her head bent, awaiting his pleasure.
"Columbine," he said, and the name came with an unaccustomed softness from his lips, "I've something to say to you.