"It began to seem to me that I really had been brought up wrong and trained in absurd ways, and that unless I threw my moral scruples to the winds, I should be a jest and a laughing-stock to all city people. We grow to feel, and think, and live like those we meet daily, and when I came here, among you whose lives and morals were so unlike city folks and so like those of the people among whom I was reared, it seemed as if I had gone back to my boyhood home.
"I think the sound of your church bells, Mona, was an influence more potent than all else to carry my thoughts and feelings home again."
He paused a moment to look out seaward and along the broadening path of moonlight as if it led into a new life and a new world, while Mona watched his half-averted face. All this was a revelation to her of his inner self, his nature and impulses. She had thought tenderly of him before; now he seemed the embodiment of all that was good and true and manly—a hero she must fain worship.
"Life is a puzzle-board, dear," he said at last, as if that sparkling roadway had been followed into a better one; "we all strive for happiness in it and know not where or how it may be found. We wish to please ourselves first, and to share it with those who seem akin to us. Few really desire to annoy others or give them pain. Then again we are selfish, and our own needs and hungers seem all important. We are a little vain ofttimes, carnal always, unthinking, and seldom generous. We forget that it is more blessed to give than to receive, that a clear conscience is as necessary to happiness as good digestion is to health, and that we cannot walk alone through life. We must depend upon others for about all the happiness we receive, and they on us. Then again we had best remain with those we understand and who know us best. They and they only can or will seem near to us. Your bells have carried me back to those with whom I am allied by nature; and among them and in the pure and simple life they live, I feel that peace and contentment may be found. With you it is the same, my dear, and it is to keep you here among those akin to you that I say what I have of the great world. Do not wish to enter it; do not imagine you will find happiness there, for you cannot. Here you are loved and understood, here are those you know and can trust, and here every cliff, and gorge, and grove, every flower, and bird, and ocean voice, contains a childish memory. Were you to leave them behind every call of the church bells at eventide would carry your heart back to these scenes again, as it has mine to those of my youth. No, dear, be warned in time and remain content."
He meant it for her good, but she thought only of a similar bit of advice he had given her once before, and one that wounded her to the heart.
For a little longer they sat and watched the moonlight scene; Winn unconscious that beside him was a girl whose ennobling ambition and sweet, patient nature was a prize any man might feel proud to win, and Mona quivering with an unaccountable heartache; and then he rose to go.
"It is getting late, dear," he said in his familiar way, "and we'd best go home. You may catch cold if we stay here longer."
And Cupid, hovering on the old stone tower, turned away in sorrow for a wasted opportunity.
But Winn held out his hand to assist Mona, and be it said to his credit, he retained hers in a warm clasp until her gate was reached.
"Good night, dear," he said then as he opened it for her to enter, "and sweet dreams."