"
The girl, who had been looking out into the night, came back.
"You are making a mistake, Mr. Tavernake," she said. "You are
too young and strong to have finished your battle."
He looked at her steadily and sighed. It was only too obvious
that hers had been fought and lost.
"Perhaps," he replied softly, "you are right. Perhaps it is only
the rest I want. We shall see."
CHAPTER II
THE SIMPLE LIFE
So Tavernake became a boat-builder. Summer passed into winter
and this hamlet by the sea seemed, indeed, as though it might
have been one of the forgotten spots upon the earth. Save for
that handful of cottages, the two farmhouses a few hundred yards
inland, and the deserted Hall half-hidden in its grove of pine
trees, there was no dwelling-place nor any sign of human
habitation for many miles. For eight hours a day Tavernake
worked, mostly out of doors, in the little yard which hung over
the beach. Sometimes he rested from his labors and looked
seaward, looked around him as though rejoicing in that unbroken
solitude, the emptiness of the gray ocean, the loneliness of the
land behind. What things there were which lay back in the cells
of his memory, no person there knew, for he spoke of his past to
no one, not even to Ruth. He was a good workman, and he lived
the simple life of those others without complaint or weariness.
There was nothing in his manner to denote that he had been used
to anything else. The village had accepted him without question.
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