"It's always true--home and the old things," she said softly--"the
things we've always known."
He looked down into her face.
"Hetty," he said, "last night--you rushed away so quickly--is it all
right?"
She turned her eyes seaward again as she answered in a low voice:
"I think so--yes."
"Oh, Hetty!" he whispered.
She dropped her hand to her side, and he caught it for an instant.
Overhead there were widening patches of blue sky; the sea was taking
on a softer hue. Behind them the tropic world glowed in beauty.
On the beach little groups of negro women, in white bandanas and
bright-colored, wind-blown skirts, stood and watched the sailors aboard
the brig, their shrill laughter and cries coming up softened by the
gale, now rapidly falling. The pumps were going again.
"It is the only familiar sound--that pump," said Hetty.
Medbury scarcely heard her.
"I don't understand it yet," he said at last, turning to her. "Just
when I thought it was all over, suddenly it comes out right. I don't
understand."
"You never will, you poor boy," she replied, smiling up into his face.
Then suddenly her face grew grave, and she began to speak again: "It
was only when I thought it was all over that I began to think. Then
the storm came, and I saw how much it meant to me that you were near
me, and I was almost sure that I had made a mistake. I think I wasn't
_quite_ sure until you made that dreadful picture yesterday of what it
would be for us to be merely friends. Then I knew."
"You said I was cruel," he told her.
"You were," she said.
"But if it brought us together, how--"
"That doesn't make it any different."
"Well," he replied, in his bewilderment, "I am sure I shall never
understand, as you say; but I do not care. It is enough to know that
everything is right at last. And you are sure that you will not mind
giving up China, Hetty, and the missionary work?"
"Yes," she said firmly; "I was almost ready to give that up three days
ago--before I thought I cared for you, you know. I have thought many
things in these three days. Sometimes, when I think of them, I feel a
thousand years old, as Miss Stromberg says."
The door of the cabin below them opened, and they heard the sound of
Drew's voice and Miss Stromberg's laugh. She was patiently waiting
until she could go ashore.
"I was beginning to think that _he_ was going to stand in my way,
Hetty," said Medbury, nodding toward the cabin.