"It seems like the clouds has lifted, Janet, an' I'm thinkin' there'll never be no more 'twixt us."
"Never! dear, dear Daddy!" the girl hugged him to her.
"I ain't been so happy an' care free fur years, Janet. It seems like we've cleared the decks, not fur action so much as smooth sailin'!"
"That's it, Daddy, smooth sailing. Just you and I to the very end!"
"Come, Janet, we must get t' bed. We'll sleep on all this new happiness. Yer room's ready; 't was her room fust. She said over an' agin that it was a safe harbor. An' so 'tis, Janet, so 'tis, an' allus shall be fur whatever was hers! Good night, child, an' God bless ye! If yer only fair-minded ye can see that ye don't get any more storms on yer voyage than is good fur ye."
That night Janet lay wide-eyed and sleepless upon her mother's bed. Her fancy wandered far and her young blood coursed hotly through her veins; but always she came trustfully back to the thought of Billy's patient love and courage; and it gave her heart to face the future, whatever it might be.
CHAPTER XII
The master of Bluff Head had the disconcerting impression borne in upon him that the getting ready for winter at Quinton had a moral and spiritual significance, as well as a physical one. He felt a cold exclusion round about him, as if the good people did not quite know what to do with him. He belonged to the summer. For him and others of his world they had braced for action and thawed out to the extent of making him feel he was not intruding, while occupying his own house. But they resented his prolonged stay and necessary infringement upon their well-earned liberty. Not that Devant imposed his presence upon them—he rigidly observed a decent dignity—and he was more than willing to pay a high price for any service he required; but James B., while accepting large wages, fretted under the necessity of holding to a sure thing, while a vague possibility lay outside.