The girl’s cool, level eyes met his, and he blushed again.
“She has a good heart,” he stumbled on, “and always thinks of others.”
“Yes, she has,” agreed the girl without enthusiasm, and Code dropped the subject.
“How did your father happen to have this for me?” he asked, after a pause.
“Well, you know, you surprised everybody by leaving the Head before the rest of the fleet. Elsa had it in mind to give you this packet, she says, before you left. But when you went so suddenly she asked father to give it to you. She said she expected the Rosan would catch the Lass on the Banks. At least, this is the yarn dad told me.”
“She seems to know considerable about the Banks and the ways of fishermen,” he said, with an unconscious ring of enthusiasm in his tone.
“Yes; you’d think she pulled her own dory instead of being the richest woman in New Brunswick.”
Code looked at his old sweetheart in amazement. He had never seen her so disagreeable. His eye fell upon her left hand.
For a moment his mind did not register an impression. Then all of a sudden it flashed upon him that her ring was gone.