"But I don't mind now--I really don't. That was all in the past, and it's over now. If you want to make me happy, be happy yourself. I see there are forces that guide our lives that must have their will whatever our own private plans may be, and, having learned that lesson, I feel that perhaps now I shall be happier, somehow, than I ever would have been if my own selfishness had triumphed."
Code lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it.
"What a splendid woman you are! I know that happiness and joy will come to you. One who has done what you have done cannot fail to realize it. This hour will always be a very sweet one in my memory, and I shall never forget it."
"Nor I," she said softly, "for, through you, I have begun to find myself."
The village of Freekirk Head prospered once Code Schofield, Bijonah Tanner, and Jed Martin had started the ball rolling. Inside a week another large consignment of fish arrived. Boughton was ready for it, and for all that could come, he said, in the next two months.
This was music to the ears of Code Schofield and the crack crew of the _Charming Lass_, and nine days after they had picked up their mooring in the little crescent harbor they were off again, salt and bait-laden, for the Banks, expecting to do a little haddocking if they failed to load down with cod before they disappeared in October.
Seven schooners sailed with him that day, and, at the end of nine weeks, the _Lass_ weighed anchor and charged home with the first halibut that had come into Freekirk Head in years. On this trip, when he was left in peace, Code displayed all the remarkable "nose" for fish that his father had had before him.
And when he had weighed out the last of his halibut Bill Boughton led him into the little office of the fishstand and offered him a quarter interest in the business.
Thereafter Code was to make only such trips as he could spare time for, and Pete was to have charge of the _Lass_ on other occasions.
He had proved himself worth his salt in the eyes of the whole village, and Boughton needed some one to do the heavy work, while he collected most of the profits. This business future, and three thousand dollars in the bank, led Code one day to send to St. John's for an architect, and to haggle with Al Green concerning the cost of a piece of land overlooking the blue bay.