"You surely are a benefactor, Mr. Gayne," she said at last, with enthusiasm.
"Let me be a benefactor to Mrs. Lowell, too," he returned, and the lady yielded up the glass.
"That is the great Penguin Light beyond Crag Island," he said, as Mrs. Lowell accepted the binoculars. "The trees hide it in the daytime, it is so distant, but at night you will see it flash out."
"It is so interesting that you are familiar here, Mr. Gayne," said Miss Emerson. "You must tell us all about the island and show us the prettiest places."
The owner of the binoculars stirred restlessly under the appealing smile the lady was bestowing upon him.
"For myself, I just love to walk," she added suggestively.
"I don't do much walking," he returned shortly. "I come here to sketch."
"Oh, an artist!" exclaimed Miss Emerson, clasping her hands in the extremity of her delight. "Do you allow any one to watch you work? Such a pleasure as it would be."
"It isn't, though," said Nicholas Gayne with an uncomfortable side-glance at his admirer. "My daubs aren't worth watching."