To the little fishing village came an artist on vacation, as once, many years before, another of his craft had come, innocently and with no thought of what the future might hold for him. The sea was his object. For a while he lived by the sea, striving to catch and convey to canvas some of its caprices; then the fisherman's granddaughter crossed his path, and he began to forget his mission. He was painting her portrait when her grandfather, discovering what had happened, came on the scene and, after hearing the artist's name, dashed the framed canvas upon the easel in sudden wrath. "Come away," cried the terrible old man to the girl. To the girl her grandfather explained nothing, but to his old neighbor he told the tragic story of his daughter, who had loved that other artist and given her life for his child, Elsie. "And that man is his son," he cried, "He will come tonight for my answer, and I shall kill him." But the artist did not come. Instead, a boatman brought a note, telling Elsie's grandfather that she had eloped with her lover. They were beyond the old man's reach, but the sea must be reckoned with. At dawn, two bodies were cast up on the shore.