About this story
Avice Caro greets you with a childhood kiss; your hesitation wounds her, and guilt sends you back to mend it. Within weeks you propose at the cliff called the Beal, though Avice asks for one night alone to answer freely, and outside her recitation you catch yourself drawn, briefly, to a striking stranger in a passing carriage. She answers yes within the month; it is a later farewell walk, on your last evening there, that her note cancels, citing an old island custom.
How it opens
The steep island street climbed between stone houses stacked above one another.
After years in London and abroad, quarry saws still gave your birthplace its pulse.
Pierston SeniorFour years is a long absence for a son who accepts an allowance yearly.
Pierston SeniorYet I see the Caro doorway interests you more than your own.
Mrs CaroJocelyn Pierston, home at last and dressed beyond all island recognition.
Choose
My dear Avice, you have made four years disappear in one second.
Forgive my surprise. London teaches caution where the island taught welcome.