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Among these was one who had–thank God, thank God! and so, amid wails and weeping, rough men and little children alike knelt with uncovered heads and hidden eyes while this one woman faltered the prayer that was a prayer for a dying man; and when it was ended, and all rose glancing fearfully at the white line of creeping foam, this dying man for whom they had prayed, lay upon his death-bed of sand the quietest of them all–quiet with a strange calm.

“Bring me my jacket,” he said, “an’ lay it o’er my face. Theer’s a bit o’ a posie in th’ button-hole. I getten it out o’ th’ missus’s garden when I comn away. I’d like to howld it i’ my hand if it’s theer yet.”

And as the long line of white came creeping onward they hurriedly did as he told them–laid the rough garment over his face, and gave him the humble dying flowers to hold, and ‘aving done this and lingered to the last moment, one after the other dropped away with awe-stricken souls until the last was gone. And under the arch of sunny sky the little shining waves ran up the beach, chasing each other over the glittering sand, catching at shells and sea-weed, toying with them for a moment, and then leaving them, rippling and curling and whispering, but creeping–creeping–creeping.

They gave his message to the woman he had loved with all the desperate strength of his dull, yet unchanging nature; and when the man who gave it to her saw her wild, white face and hard-set lips, he blundered upon some dim guess as to what that single word might have been, but the sharpest of them never knew the stubborn anguish that, following and growing day by day, crushed her fierce will and shook her heart. She was as hard as ever, they thought; but they were none of them the men or women to guess at the long dormant instinct of womanhood and remorse that the tragedy of this one day of her life had awakened. She had said she would never forgive him, and perhaps her very strength made it long before she did; but surely some subtle chord was touched by those heavy last words, for when, months later, her first love came back, faithful and tender, with his old tale to tell she would not listen.

“Nay, lad,” she said, “I amna a feather to blow wi’ th’ wind. I’ve had my share o’ trouble wi’ men foak, an’ I ha’ no mind to try again. Him as lies i’ th’ churchyard loved me i’ his way–men foak’s way is apt to be a poor un–an’ I’m wore out wi’ life. Dunnot come here courtin’–tak’ a better woman.”

But yet, there are those who say that the time will come when he will not plead in vain.