"Go down just the same. I've been telegraphing saying I'm coming.
That's why I'm late getting down to the boat."
"And if she persists?"
"Give her up and clear out, I suppose."
"You mean leave the island?"
"Why shouldn't I? I've only been a stick-in-the-mud here and
couldn't do much worse anywhere else, could I? Besides" (his voice
was breaking) "there's my father. You remember what he said. I
couldn't face it out if the girl threw me over."
"She's not well, is she?"
"Not very."
"Nothing serious?"
"No--nothing, the Miss Browns think, that we might not expect after
such a change in her life and condition."
"Then that's it! Cheer up, old man! It will all come right yet.
Women suffer from so many things that we men know nothing about."
"If I could only think that...."
"You may--of course you may."
"Victor," said Gell, taking Stowell's hand, "will you do one thing
more for me?"
"Certainly--what is it?"
"Nobody can read a woman as you can--everybody says that. If Bessie
gives me the same answer to-day will you go down to Derby Haven with
me when you come back, and find out what's amiss with her?"
"Assuredly I will .... that is to say .... if you think...."
"Is it a promise?"
"Undoubtedly. It shall be the first thing I do when I return to the
island."
"All ashore! All ashore!"
A sailor was shouting on the deck outside the cabin door, and the
third bell was ringing.
Gell was the last to cross the gangway.
"Good-bye and God bless you, and good luck in London! You deserve
every bit of it!"
At the next moment the gangway was pulled in, the ropes were thrown
aboard, and the steamer was gliding away.
The young advocates on the pier-head were beginning to make a
demonstration. One of them (the wag of course) was singing a
sentimental farewell in a doleful voice and the others were joining
in the chorus:
"_Better lo'ed ye canna be,
Will ye no come back again?_"
Some of the other passengers (English commercial travellers
apparently) were looking on, so to turn the edge of the joke Stowell
sang also, and when his deep baritone was heard above the rest there
was a burst of laughter.
"Good-bye! Good-luck! Bring it back, boy!"
Gell was standing at the sea-end of the pier, waving his cap and
struggling to smile. At sight of his face Stowell felt ashamed of
his own happiness. A vague shadow of something that had come to him
before came again, with a shudder such as one feels when a bat
strikes one in the dusk.
At the next moment it was gone. The steamer was swinging round the
breakwater and opening the bay, and he was looking for a long white
house (Government House) which stood on the heights above the town.
He had slept there last night, and this morning Fenella, parting from
him in the porch, while the Governor's high-stepping horses were
champing on the gravel outside, had promised to signal to him when
she saw the steamer clearing the harbour.
Ah, there she was, waving a white scarf from an upper window.
Stowell stood by the rail at the stern and waved back his
handkerchief. Fenella! He could see nothing but her dark eyes and
beaming smile, and Gell's sad face was forgotten.
It was a fine fresh morning, with the sun filtering through a veil of
haze and the world answering to the call of Spring. As the boat
sailed on, the island seemed to recede and shrink and then sink into
the sea until only the tops of the mountains were visible--looking
like a dim grey ghost that was lying at full stretch in the sky.
At length it was gone; the sea-gulls which had followed the steamer
out had made their last swirl round and turned towards the land, but
Stowell was still looking back from the rail at the stern.
The dear little island! How good it had been to him! How eager he
would be to return to it!
The sun broke clear, the waters widened and widened, the glistening
blue waves rolled on and on, the ship rose and fell to the rhythm of
the flowing tide, the throb of the engines beat time to the deep
surge of the sea, and the still deeper surge of youth and love and
health and hope within him.
Dear God, how happy he was! What had he done to deserve such
happiness?