"Papa, stop him! Mr. Lisle," shrieked Helen, "come back—come back, Mr. Lisle."
The idea of any one putting out again among those tumbling waves, seemed to her nothing less than suicidal; but the white boat was already gone,—lost almost instantaneously in the surrounding darkness.
"It's not so risky between this and Aberdeen, Miss Denis," said Dr. Malone; "and Lisle is a capital sailor. But what a grand fright you have given us all, and what a terrible trip you must have had!"
Miss Denis made no reply; she staggered up to the top of the steps and stood upon the pier in the light of half-a -dozen torches—a strange figure, in a dripping dress, with her long hair covering her as a kind of mantle, and hanging far below her waist in thick dark masses.
"Take her home, and put her to bed at once," said Dr. Malone, "and give her a warm drink, and don't let any one worry her with questions" (doubtless he was thinking of Mrs. Creery); "to-morrow morning I will call, and she will be all right, and will tell us how it happened that she let us go off without her."
But how that came to pass was never clearly explained up to the present day; people had their suspicions, but suspicions go for very little.
Miss Denis carried out Dr. Malone's instructions to the letter. She went home and went to bed and fell sound asleep. One thing she did which he had not prescribed,—
She dreamt of Mr. Lisle!