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 and went off with herself. Elspeth and I consulted. As the food and the rug weren't in the boat, we assumed that you had them. The night was remarkably warm; we knew you'd be too sensible to try to row down; I couldn't leave the Light in any case; so we decided to let you stay. We thought you'd enjoy yourselves thoroughly."

"Do you think I enjoyed myself," said Joan, "knowing that I'd lost your boat?"

"I told her it was all right," Garth put in. "She's been worrying awfully."

"I did a great many careless things," said Joan rather wretchedly, and confessed to Jim the whole history of her ill-judged excursion. She did not dare to look at him and did not know what he was thinking.

"I admit," he said gravely, when she had finished, "that I shouldn't have felt very happy if I'd known you were out in that squall. I calculated that you'd have reached Trasket a good half hour before it came up. I'm sorry that you had such a stiff time, but, on the whole, I think that you must have managed rather well not to have had her over."

"I'll never sail again," said Joan.

"That's no way to feel," Jim said. "You'll