“A party!” exclaimed Jane, in surprise.
“If they could manage to get one up.”
“I am sure Valentine did not know that this morning.”
“I daresay not. I asked the girls if Valentine wanted a crowd there on his last evening, and they exclaimed that Valentine never knew what was good for him.”
“As you are here, Johnny,” she went on, after a silence, “I wonder if you would mind my asking you to do me a favour? It is to walk home with me after tea. I shall not be late this evening.”
“Of course I will, Jane.”
“I cannot go past the Inlets alone after dark,” she whispered. “I never do so by daylight but a dreadful shiver seizes me. I—I’m afraid of seeing something.”
“Have you ever seen it since that first evening, Jane?”
“Never since. Never once. I do not suppose that I shall ever see it again; but the fear lies upon me.”