THE L1GHTHoUsEIO

[The sea without a stain on it, thought LilyBriscoe, still standing and looking out over thebay. The sea is stretched like silk across the bay.Distance had an extraordinary power; they hadbeen swallowed up in it, she felt, they were gonefor ever, they had become part of the natureofthings. It was so calm; it was so quiet. Thesteamer itself had vanished, but the great scrollof smoke still hung in the air and drooped likea Hag mournfully in valediction.]

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It was like that then, the island, thought Cam,once more drawing her fingers through the waves.She had never seen it from out at sea before. Itlay like that on the sea, did it,—with a dent in themiddle and two sharp crags, and the sea swept inthere, and spread away for miles and miles oneither side of the island. It was very small;shaped something like a leaf stood on end. Sowe took a little boat, she thought, beginning totell herself a story of adventure about escapingfrom a sinking ship. But with the sea streamingthrough her fingers, a spray of seaweed vanishingbehind them, she did not want to tell herself289