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into the dell. There by the spring sat Lueli, arranging shells round the water’s edge as though he were laying out a garden. His back was turned, he was so absorbed in his game that he did not discover that he was being watched. Presently he rolled over and lay on his stomach, gently kicking his heels in the air.
    Mr. Fortune had a good stare at him. Then he tiptoed back again and began to dress.
    As a rule Mr. Fortune was rather careless about his appearance, and compared to the islanders he was decidedly dirty, for whereas they would bathe themselves three times a day or more, he considered that once was enough. But now he made his toilet with extraordinary circumspection and deliberation. He shaved himself as minutely as though he were about to attend an archidiaconal meeting, he parted his hair, he fastened every button with a twitch, he pulled his coat forward so that it should sit well on his shoulders, he wound up his watch and knotted his bootlaces so that they should not come undone. He even put on a hat.
    All the while he had a curious sensation that he was dressing a man of stone that must needs be dressed like a dummy, for of itself it was senseless and immovable. Yet he was the man of stone, his fingers that slowly and firmly pushed the buttons through the button-holes and knotted the bootlaces were so remorselessly and stonily strong that if he had not been managing them with such care they would have ground the buttons to powder; and if he had allowed them for one moment to tremble the bootlaces would have snapped off in his grasp like black cotton threads.
    Walking terribly and softly, and still in this curious stony dream, he stepped into the dell and advanced on Lueli. Lueli turned round. It seemed to Mr. Fortune that he was looking frightened, but he could not be sure of this for his eyes also were partaking of the nature of stone, they did not see very clearly. He came up to Lueli and took hold of him by the shoulder and jerked him on to his feet.
    Then, still holding fast to Lueli’s shoulder, he said:
    â€œWhere have you been?”
    Lueli said: “I have been fishing with my two cousins. For three days we went in our boats and at night we sang.”
    But Mr. Fortune did not seem to have heard him, and said again:
    â€œWhere have you been?”
    Lueli said: “We paddled round this island and away to the north-west to an islet of shells. I have brought you back these—look!—as a present.”
    For the third time Mr. Fortune asked:
    â€œWhere have you been?”
    But this time he did not wait for an answer. Putting his face close to Lueli’s and speaking with his eyes shut and in a low, secret voice, he began to scold him.
    â€œDon’t tell me where you’ve been. I don’t care. Why should I care where you go? You made off without asking my leave, so what is it to me where you go to or how long you stay away? Nothing! For I cannot allow myself to love a boy who flouts me. While you were good I loved you, but that goodness didn’t last long and I don’t suppose it meant much. Why did you run away? If you had told me, if you had asked my leave, I would have given it gladly. But of course you didn’t, you went off without a word, and left me to worry myself half out of my mind. Not that I worried for long. I soon saw that you didn’t care a snap of your fingers for me. If you were sorry I would forgive you, but you are not sorry, you are only frightened. I am very angry with you, Lueli—for I cannot call you Theodore now.”
    Mr. Fortune’s eyes were shut, but he knew that Lueli was frightened for he could feel him trembling. After a minute he began again:
    â€œI can feel how you tremble, but that is silly of you, it only shows how little you understand me. You have no reason to be frightened, don’t think I would punish you with blows for I would never do such a thing, I don’t approve of it. But something I must do. I