Now and then he shifted his gaze from the faces before him to hers . When he did , she always looked up and they exchanged glances as if they had been utterly alone . Three other couples gradually took the floor and the reel began . Joan drifted through the figures with the grace of a wind-blown leaf . Paul danced with rollicking abandon , seldom taking his eyes from Joan 's face . When the last mad whirl was over , Joan 's brother came up and told her in an angry tone to go into the next room and dance no more , since she would dance with only one man . Joan looked at Paul . That look meant that she would do as he , and none other , told her . Paul nodded easily -- he did not want any fuss just then -- and the girl went obediently into the room . As she turned from him , Paul coolly reached out his hand and took the rose from her hair ; then , with a triumphant glance around the room , he went out . The autumn night was very clear and chill , with a faint , moaning wind blowing up from the northwest over the sea that lay shimmering before the door . Out beyond the cove the boats were nodding and curtsying on the swell , and over the shore fields the great red star of the lighthouse flared out against the silvery sky . Paul , with a whistle , sauntered down the sandy lane , thinking of Joan . How mightily he loved her -- he , Paul King , who had made a mock of so many women and had never loved before ! Ah , and she loved him . She had never said so in words , but eyes and tones had said it -- she , Joan Shelley , the pick and pride of the Harbour girls , whom so many men had wooed , winning their trouble for their pains . He had won her ; she was his and his only , for the asking . His heart was seething with pride and triumph and passion as he strode down to the shore and flung himself on the cold sand in the black shadow of Michael Brown 's beached boat . Byron Lyall , a grizzled , elderly man , half farmer , half fisherman , and Maxwell Holmes , the Prospect schoolteacher , came up to the boat presently . Paul lay softly and listened to what they were saying .
He was not troubled by any sense XXXXX dishonour .
as at down for from in of over that through