‘Let it be,’ he said to himself.  ’I have declared there shall be peace—­if possible.’

Taking up his umbrella he quietly left the enclosure, and went on his way, still keeping his back to the town.  He had advanced with more decision since passing the new building, and soon a hoarse murmur rose upon the gloom; it was the sound of the sea.  The road led to the harbour, at a distance of a mile from the town, from which the trade of the district was fed.  After seeing the obnoxious name-board Barnet had forgotten to open his umbrella, and the rain tapped smartly on his hat, and occasionally stroked his face as he went on.

Though the lamps were still continued at the roadside, they stood at wider intervals than before, and the pavement had given place to common road.  Every time he came to a lamp an increasing shine made itself visible upon his shoulders, till at last they quite glistened with wet.  The murmur from the shore grew stronger, but it was still some distance off when he paused before one of the smallest of the detached houses by the wayside, standing in its own garden, the latter being divided from the road by a row of wooden palings.  Scrutinizing the spot to ensure that he was not mistaken, he opened the gate and gently knocked at the cottage door.

When he had patiently waited minutes enough to lead any man in ordinary cases to knock again, the door was heard to open, though it was impossible to see by whose hand, there being no light in the passage.  Barnet said at random, ‘Does Miss Savile live here?’

A youthful voice assured him that she did live there, and by a sudden afterthought asked him to come in.  It would soon get a light, it said:  but the night being wet, mother had not thought it worth while to trim the passage lamp.

‘Don’t trouble yourself to get a light for me,’ said Barnet hastily; ’it is not necessary at all.  Which is Miss Savile’s sitting-room?’

The young person, whose white pinafore could just be discerned, signified a door in the side of the passage, and Barnet went forward at the same moment, so that no light should fall upon his face.  On entering the room he closed the door behind him, pausing till he heard the retreating footsteps of the child.

He found himself in an apartment which was simply and neatly, though not poorly furnished; everything, from the miniature chiffonnier to the shining little daguerreotype which formed the central ornament of the mantelpiece, being in scrupulous order.  The picture was enclosed by a frame of embroidered card-board—­evidently the work of feminine hands—­and it was the portrait of a thin faced, elderly lieutenant in the navy.  From behind the lamp on the table a female form now rose into view, that of a young girl, and a resemblance between her and the portrait was early discoverable.  She had been so absorbed in some occupation on the other side of the lamp as to have barely found time to realize her visitor’s presence.