ON THE SAND BAR
Owen Ford left Four Winds the next morning. In the evening Anne went over to see Leslie, but found nobody.
The house was locked and there was no light in any window. It looked like a home left soulless. Leslie did not run over on the following day--which Anne thought a bad sign.
Gilbert having occasion to go in the evening to the fishing cove, Anne drove with him to the Point, intending to stay awhile with Captain Jim. But the great light, cutting its swathes through the fog of the autumn evening, was in care of Alec Boyd and Captain Jim was away.
"What will you do?" asked Gilbert. "Come with me?""I don't want to go to the cove--but I'll go over the channel with you, and roam about on the sand shore till you come back. The rock shore is too slippery and grim tonight."Alone on the sands of the bar Anne gave herself up to the eerie charm of the night. It was warm for September, and the late afternoon had been very foggy;but a full moon had in part lessened the fog and transformed the harbor and the gulf and the surrounding shores into a strange, fantastic, unreal world of pale silver mist, through which everything loomed phantom-like. Captain Josiah Crawford's black schooner sailing down the channel, laden with potatoes for Bluenose ports, was a spectral ship bound for a far uncharted land, ever receding, never to be reached.
The calls of unseen gulls overhead were the cries of the souls of doomed seamen. The little curls of foam that blew across the sand were elfin things stealing up from the sea-caves. The big, round-shouldered sand-dunes were the sleeping giants of some old northern tale. The lights that glimmered palely across the harbor were the delusive beacons on some coast of fairyland. Anne pleased herself with a hundred fancies as she wandered through the mist. It was delightful--romantic-- mysterious to be roaming here alone on this enchanted shore.
But was she alone? Something loomed in the mist before her--took shape and form--suddenly moved towards her across the wave-rippled sand.
"Leslie!" exclaimed Anne in amazement. "Whatever are you doing--HERE--tonight?""If it comes to that, whatever are YOU doing here?"said Leslie, trying to laugh. The effort was a failure. She looked very pale and tired; but the love locks under her scarlet cap were curling about her face and eyes like little sparkling rings of gold.
"I'm waiting for Gilbert--he's over at the Cove. Iintended to stay at the light, but Captain Jim is away.""Well, _I_ came here because I wanted to walk--and walk--and WALK," said Leslie restlessly. "I couldn't on the rock shore--the tide was too high and the rocks prisoned me. I had to come here--or I should have gone mad, I think. I rowed myself over the channel in Captain Jim's flat. I've been here for an hour.
Come--come--let us walk. I can't stand still. Oh, Anne!""Leslie, dearest, what is the trouble?" asked Anne, though she knew too well already.
"I can't tell you--don't ask me . I wouldn't mind your knowing-- I wish you did know--but I can't tell you--Ican't tell anyone. I've been such a fool, Anne--and oh, it hurts so terribly to be a fool. There's nothing so painful in the world."She laughed bitterly. Anne slipped her arm around her.
"Leslie, is it that you have learned to care for Mr.
Ford?"
Leslie turned herself about passionately.
