"He jars me," returned the young man shouldering his painting kit.
"Dreadful!"
Kenneth laughed and took his departure, Gwen watching him. "He is much better fun," she soliloquized, "but alas, he is as poor as poverty. Why does the gift always come with the gauntlet? The singing waves! the singing waves! How well he understood. Come out, Aunt Cam, come out," she called. "The sun is about to set, and I refuse to eat one tinker till the sky grows gray."
CHAPTER VI
PEBBLY BEACH
A hot sun glared upon the long highroad, warmed the rocks along shore and beat upon the pebbly stretch below the bluff. Yet a fresh breeze from the sea cooled the faces of the two who sought the beach, and who found it pleasant enough in the shade of the great boulders.
"It is something of a rough and tumble walk to come this way," said Gwen, "but we can go back by the bluff, though this is shorter. Now, sit down and tell me if you ever saw more beautiful pebbles. You must find one, with a ring around it, for a talisman. While you are doing that I will hunt for a big one to use at the front door; it will blow shut. I want some pretty stones, too, just to look at."
"Just to look at?"
"Don't you like to look at pretty things?"