I was up at four, in the first gray dawn of a September morning.  We had the yacht to ourselves, for Captain Carey declined running the risk of being weather-bound on the island—­a risk which we were willing to chance.  The Havre Gosselin was still in morning shadow when we ran into it; but the water between us and Guernsey was sparkling and dancing in the early light, as we slowly climbed the rough path of the cliff.  My eyes were dazzled with the sunshine, and dim with tears, when I first caught sight of the little cottage of Tardif, who was stretching out his nets, on the stone causeway under the windows.  Martin called to him, and he flung down his nets and ran to meet us.

“We are come to spend the day with you, Tardif,” I cried, when he was within hearing of my voice.

“It will be a day from heaven,” he said, taking off his fisherman’s cap, and looking round at the blue sky with its scattered clouds, and the sea with its scattered islets.

It was like a day from heaven.  We wandered about the cliffs, visiting every spot which was most memorable to either of us, and Tardif rowed us in his boat past the entrance of the Gouliot Caves.  He was very quiet, but he listened to our free talk together, for I could not think of good old Tardif as any stranger; and he seemed to watch us both, with a far-off, faithful, quiet look upon his face.  Sometimes I fancied he did not bear what we were saying, and again his eyes would brighten with a sudden gleam, as if his whole soul and heart shone through them upon us.  It was the last day of our holiday, for in the morning we were about to return to London, and to work; but it was such a perfect day as I had never known before.

“You are quite happy, Mrs. Martin Dobree?” said Tardif to me, when we were parting from him.

“I did not know I could ever be so happy,” I answered.

“We saw him to the last moment standing on the cliff, and waving his hat to us high above his head.  Now and then there came a shout across the water.  Before we were quite beyond ear-shot, we heard Tardif’s voice calling amid the splashing of the waves: 

“God be with you, my friends.  Adieu, mam’zelle!”

CHAPTER THE TWENTY-NINTH.

A POSTSCRIPT BY MARTIN DOBREE.

You may describe to a second person, with the most minute and exact fidelity in your power, the leading and critical events in your life, and you will find that some trifle of his own experience is ten times more vivid to his mind.  You narrate to your friend, whom you have not met for many years, the incident that has turned the whole current of your existence; and after a minute or two of musing, he asks you, “Do you remember the day we two went bird-nesting on Gull’s Cliff?” That day of boyish daring and of narrow escapes is more real to him than your deepest troubles or keenest joys.  The brain receives but slightly second-hand impressions.