“I am glad you don’t like him,” James said, warmly.  “Somehow I made up my mind that you were all sure to like him, and I don’t suppose the idea made me like him any the better.  He was just the free-and-easy sort of fellow to get along well, and I was quite sure that Aggie would not want me, when she had him to go about with her.  I saw him drive through in the pony carriage with her, two or three times, and it was easy to see how thoroughly she was enjoying herself.”

“Well, it was your own fault, my boy.  If you choose to sulk down here, and never to go up to the Hall, you can’t blame Aggie for letting herself be amused by someone else.”

“Oh!  I don’t blame her,” James said hastily.  “Of course, it is all right that she should enjoy herself with her cousin.  Only somehow, you know, after being great friends with anyone, one doesn’t like to see someone else stepping into your place.”

“But as I have told you, over and over again, during the last three years, Jim, you have willfully stepped out of your place.  You know how often I have asked you to come up, and how seldom you have come.  You have never shown Aggie that you have any wish to continue on the footing of friendship, on which you stood towards each other when she was at your mother’s, and as you have chosen to throw her over, I don’t see why she shouldn’t take to anyone else who takes pains to make himself pleasant to her.”

“Oh!  I don’t blame her a bit, Mr. Wilks.  How could you think such a thing!  I was very fond of little Aggie when she was at my mother’s; but of course, I was not ass enough to suppose that she was going trotting about the country with me, when she once went up to the Hall as the squire’s granddaughter.  Of course, the whole thing was changed.

“Ah!  Here comes the rain.”

As he spoke, a sudden splash of rain struck them.  It might have been noticed coming across the water in a white line.  With it came a gust of wind, to which that which had already been blowing was a trifle.  There was no more talking, for nothing less than a shout could have been heard above the roaring of the wind.  It was scarcely possible to stand against the fury of the squall, and they were driven across the road, and took shelter at the corner of some houses, where the fishermen had already retired.

The squall lasted but a few minutes, but was soon succeeded by another, almost equally furious, and this seemed to increase in strength, until the wind was blowing a perfect hurricane; but the fishermen now struggled across the road again, for, between the rain squalls, a glimpse had been caught of two of the fishing boats, and these were now approaching the shore.  A mere rag of sail was set on each, and yet they tore over the waves at tremendous speed.

One was some two hundred yards ahead of the other, and by the course they were making, they would come ashore nearly at the same spot.  The news that two boats were in sight spread rapidly, and many of the fishermen’s wives, with shawls over their heads, ran down and stood peering out from behind shelter, for it was well-nigh impossible to stand exposed to the fury of the gale.