"You wouldn't say so if you could see him. He looks like a college athlete, and I cannot fancy him ill."
"Where did you run across him?"
"On the cove road. I was taking a walk and he was coming here for some milk. He asked me the way without knowing who I was. When we recognized each other we came back together."
Miss Elliott was thoughtful for a moment, then she smiled. "I suppose," she remarked, "that it would not be prudent to warn you not to fall in love with him. You know there is the possible millionaire who is to redeem the family fortunes."
"I am afraid this is an impossible place to meet him," returned Gwen. "Millionaires don't come to little isolated islands. They go where their splendor can shine like the sun at noon. You should have taken me to Newport or Bar Harbor, Aunt Cam, if you expected great things of me."
"Then there could have been no Wits' End."
"Oh, I am satisfied. I'd rather have Wits' End than all the millionaires going. It was you who began it, you know. I'm not sighing for point lace and diamonds at present whatever I may do later on. Just now my cravings are much better filled here than they could be anywhere else, so please don't mourn on my account because of unreachable glories. Let's talk about something else. To-day we come to our own. Think of it! We shall eat supper in that adorable cottage with our eyes turned toward the sea. We can have all the fresh air we want. We can sit out on the rocks all day if we like, and can go to bed with the noise of the waves in our ears."
But neither Gwen nor her aunt had bargained upon such an uproar of waters as they listened to that first night at Wits' End, for the wind blew up from the southeast, bringing a storm with it, and before morning the breakers were thundering against the rocks, fairly shaking the little cottage to its foundations. For three days the storm lasted, to the delight of the girl who revelled in the fierce tumult. At the end of the third day Gwen looked forth from the back door. "It's clearing," she said, "and I am going out to look at the surf. You'll come, too, Aunt Cam."
"Presently," promised Miss Elliott. "I must get up these draperies first."
"How can you stop when there are such wonders out of doors?"