The sea hurled itself against the cliffs. Now and again when it suspended its roar, the moaning of the fog bell could be heard. In these intervals of comparative quiet the surging fury in the girl's heart gave way to waves of melancholy. She had quarrelled with Nora Gage that morning and the colour was still high in her cheeks. Presently she came to a pause, stamping on the ground; the next moment, however, she was moved to laughter. In a sty beside the road a group of pigs was nozzling in a trough. One sat up and looked at her with Nora's eyes.
Somewhat improved in humour, she went on up the road. When she came opposite the barn, she clambered around the ruined cellar foundation, and after tying the cow, entered the little shop. A fire had been lighted in the battered stove and sent forth a cheerful flicker. Early as it was, André was already at work; he was decorating a smooth egg-shaped stone from which he had first removed its wrapping of seaweed. He glanced up and a light leaped to his eyes. He looked at Rachel with smiling intentness as if to satisfy himself that she had not changed in any way over night. Finally he spoke:
"If you'd come a little sooner, Rachel, you'd have seen something."
She spread her fingers above the stove and turned her neck from side to side with a slow and graceful movement as the heat rushed into her face.
"What would I have seen?"
Jumping from his stool, André poured some coffee from a pot into a cup; then he offered the cup to her.
"You look cold," he said, gazing directly into her eyes; "are you cold?" And taking her shawl, he shook the moisture from it. There was always in his attitude toward her a kind of awe.
"What would I have seen?" she repeated without glancing at him.
"Why, a stranger was here. He'd been making a sketch of the figure-head; he showed it to me."
"I don't see what right he had to draw it without my permission," she murmured jealously. "Was it a good picture, André?"