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"True, Code; but I have always loved the sea, and--it amuses me.

You remember that sometimes I have been away from Freekirk Head

for a month at a time. I have been cruising in this schooner.

Once I went nearly as far as Iceland; but that took longer. A

woman in my position must do something. I can't sit up in that

great big house alone all the time."

The intensity with which she said this put a decidedly new face

on the matter. It was just like her to be lonely without Jim, he

thought. Naturally a woman with all her money must do something.

"But, Elsa," he protested, "your having the schooner for your own

use is all right enough; but why has it always turned up to help

me when I needed help most? Really, if I had all the money in the

world I could never repay the obligations that you have put me

under this summer."

"I don't want you to repay me," she said quietly. "Just the fact

that I have helped you and that you appreciate it is enough to

make me happy."