I returned through the fold and mounted the bank that sheltered the house, to see if I could discover any trace of her, or Tardif, or his mother.  All the place seemed left to itself.  Tardif’s sheep were browsing along the cliffs, and his cows were tethered here and there, but nobody appeared to be tending them.  At last I caught sight of a head rising from behind a crag, the rough shock head of a boy, and I shouted to him, making a trumpet with my hands.

“Where is neighbor Tardif?” I called.

“Down below there,” he shouted back again, pointing downward to the Havre Gosselin.  I did not wait for any further information, but darted off down the long, steep gulley to the little strand, where the pebbles were being lapped lazily by the ripple of the lowering tide.  Tardif’s boat was within a stone’s throw, and I saw Olivia sitting in the stern of it.  I shouted again with a vehemence which made them both start.

“Come back, Tardif,” I cried, “and take me with you.”

The boat was too far off for me to see how my sudden appearance affected Olivia.  Did she turn white or red at the sound of my voice?  By the time it neared the shore, and I plunged in knee-deep to meet it, her face was bright with smiles, and her hands were stretched out to help me over the boat’s side.

If Tardif had not been there, I should have kissed them both.  As it was, I tucked up my wet legs out of reach of her dress, and took an oar, unable to utter a word of the gladness I felt.

I recovered myself in a few seconds, and touched her hand, and grasped Tardif’s with almost as much force as he gripped mine.

“Where are you going to?” I asked, addressing neither of them in particular.

“Tardif was going to row me past the entrance to the Gouliot Caves,” answered Olivia, “but we will put it off now.  We will return to the shore, and hear all your adventures, Dr. Martin.  You come upon us like a phantom, and take an oar in ghostly silence.  Are you really, truly there?”

“I am no phantom,” I said, touching her hand again.  “No, we will not go back to the shore.  Tardif shall row us to the caves, and I will take you into them, and then we two will return along the cliffs.  Would you like that, mam’zelle?”

“Very much,” she answered, the smile still playing about her face.  It was brown and freckled with exposure to the sun, but so full of health and life as to be doubly beautiful to me, who saw so many wan and sickly faces.  There was a bloom and freshness about her, telling of pure air, and peaceful hours and days spent in the sunshine.  I was seated on the bench before Tardif, with my back to him, and Olivia was in front of me—­she, and the gorgeous cliffs, and the glistening sea, and the cloudless sky overhead.  No, there is no language on earth that could paint the rapture of that moment.

“Doctor,” said Tardif’s deep, grave voice behind me, “your mother, is she better?”