He looked at her for a second or two.  Then he laid down his pipe, which had not been lit, and said to her gravely, “I want you to tell me, Sheila, why you have got into a habit lately of talking about many things, and especially about your home in the North, in that sad way.  You did not do that when you came to London first; and yet it was then that you might have been struck and shocked by the difference.  You had no home-sickness for a long time—­But is it home-sickness, Sheila?”

How was she to tell him?  For an instant she was on the point of giving him all her confidence; and then, somehow or other, it occurred to her that she would be wronging her husband in seeking such sympathy from a friend as she had been expecting, and expecting in vain, from him.

“Perhaps it is home-sickness,” she said in a low voice, while she pretended to be busy tightening up the mainsail sheet.  “I should like to see Borva again.”

“But you don’t want to live there all your life?” he said.  “You know that would be unreasonable, Sheila, even if your husband could manage it; and I don’t suppose he can.  Surely your papa does not expect you to go and live in Lewis always?”

“Oh, no,” she said eagerly.  “You must not think my papa wishes anything like that.  It will be much less than that he was thinking of when he used to speak to Mr. Lavender about it.  And I do not wish to live in the Lewis always:  I have no dislike to London—­none at all—­only that—­that—­” And here she paused.

“Come, Sheila,” he said in the old paternal way to which she had been accustomed to yield up all her own wishes in the old days of their friendship, “I want you to be frank with me, and tell me what is the matter.  I know there is something wrong:  I have seen it for some time back.  Now, you know I took the responsibility of your marriage on my shoulders, and I am responsible to you, and to your papa and to myself, for your comfort and happiness.  Do you understand?”

She still hesitated, grateful in her in-most heart, but still doubtful as to what she should do.

“You look on me as an intermeddler,” he said with a smile.

“No, no,” she said:  “you have always been our best friend.”

“But I have intermeddled none the less.  Don’t you remember when I told you I was prepared to accept the consequences?”

It seemed so long a time since then!

“And once having begun to intermeddle, I can’t stop, don’t you see?  Now, Sheila, you’ll be a good little girl and do what I tell you.  You’ll take the boat a long way out:  we’ll put her head round, take down the sails, and let her tumble about and drift for a time, till you tell me all about your troubles, and then we’ll see what can be done.”