'I daresay,' broke in an exasperated little voice; 'fine fun for you others to get up at four in the morning when the steamer isn't expected until six, and go scrambling about on the rocks, getting sea-birds' eggs, saying that you'll only be five minutes, and then stay an hour!'
The child spoke in little rushes and gushes, and her eyes twinkled and looked pathetic by turns in her little dark, round face.
'An hour, Tricksy! It can't have been so long as that!'
'Indeed it was, Marjorie, because I have Reggie's watch; he left it with me, and it has been rather tiresome waiting here, when you know I mayn't climb the rocks as you do.'
'Poor Tricksy, what a shame! It's too bad of us, leaving you alone all that time. Just wait until you are a year or two older, and then your mother will let you climb like the rest of us. Who would have thought that we had been away so long! Time does go so quickly when you're scrambling about for eggs!'
She looked around with bright, fearless blue eyes; a tall, slight girl of fifteen, with a face so tanned by sun and wind as almost to have lost its extreme fairness, and with the quick, free movements which speak of perfect health and an open-air life.
'Hulloa,' said Reggie suddenly; 'there's the steamer!'
'Where?' asked both the girls eagerly.
'Over there, just rounding the headland, quite in the distance; you can see the trail of smoke, She won't be in for some time yet.'
For a minute or two the young people stood watching the grey line upon the horizon; then Marjorie said—