I had found a torn label on the beach; one, evidently, from a travelling bag. It read:
Miss Mary Grant,
Passenger
to Golden Crescent Bay, B. C. Canada.
ex San Francisco, per P. C. S. S. Co. to Vancouver.
That was all.
I lay on my back on the rocks, turning the name over in my mind.
Mary.... It did not sound very musical. It was a plain-Jane-and-no-nonsense kind of name.
I started in to make excuses to myself for it. Why I did so, I have no idea, but I discovered myself at it.
Mary was a Bible name. Yes!—it had that in its favour.
Famous queens had been called Mary. Yes!
The lady who owned the world-famous "little lamb" was called Mary.