FINETTA'S WAY.
After a time Leslie got up, but she wanted to be alone a little longer;
she felt that she could not talk even to her father just then; she
wanted to be alone to think over all Yorke had told her. She walked a
few yards toward the quay, and saw that Mr. Lisle was still painting;
then she turned, and slowly paced in the direction of Ragged Point,
which stretched out dark and sullen in the sunlight.
As she had said, not a doubt of Yorke's truth and honor cast a shadow
over her happiness. If he said that it was necessary that they should
be married at once and secretly, it must be so--it should be so! He
was her lover, her master, her king. She had given herself to him
absolutely; she trusted him because she could not help herself.
She had almost reached the point, and would have gone on, but she
remembered that the tide was coming in, and that there would not be
time to get round before the sea rose above the narrow ledge of rock at
the foot of the cliffs, and she was turning back when she caught sight
of something dark above a rock at the very foot of the point.
For a moment she thought it was a bird, then she saw that it was a
hat--a woman's hat. Someone was sitting there. In an instant it struck
her that it might be a stranger, unacquainted with the conformation of
the coast line, and that if she sat there for a few minutes longer she
would be unable to get back or to turn the point.
Leslie looked at the tide, and was startled to find that it had run
up quicker than she had thought. There would be barely time to reach
the woman behind the rock and warn her. She ran forward as quickly as
she could and shouted at the top of her voice, but the voice of the
incoming waves beating against the rocks drowned hers.
She looked round, hoping to see a boat or a fisherman, but no one was
in sight; and she and the unknown, sitting there in all unconsciousness
of her peril, were alone in the grim place.
Most women would have paused and thought of her own safety, but Leslie
and selfishness had not yet made acquaintance, and she hurried on,
running where there was a bare bit of sand, and scrambling over the
rocks that lay in her path. At last she reached the one behind which
the woman she had come to warn was sitting, and stood before her
breathlessly.
"Oh, quick! Quick!" she cried pantingly. Then she stopped, and
recoiled a little. It was a girl, seated in an attitude of weariness
and lassitude, her elbows on her knees, her head bowed. Even in this
first moment Leslie noted the grace and sorrowful abandon of the
figure; but it was the uplifted face that made her recoil, for it was
that of the woman she had seen below St. Martin's Tower--it was the
woman who had sung the disreputable music-hall ditty.
There was no reckless gaiety in the face now, but a misery and despair
so eloquent that even as she recoiled, Leslie's heart ached with pity
for her.
The dark eyes looked at Leslie vacantly for a moment, then flashed with
sudden anger.
"Who are you, and what do you want?" she asked, half sullenly, half
defiantly.
Leslie flushed at the tone in which the greeting was conveyed.
"I--I saw you sitting here," she said quickly, and a little
tremulously, for the dark face disquieted her, and inspired her with a
vague uneasiness. "I saw you from the beach yonder, and I thought that
perhaps you were a stranger."
"I am a stranger. Yes, what of it?" said the woman, as sullenly and
suspiciously as before.
"And you do not know that this is Ragged Point, and that the tide is
coming up fast, very fast," said Leslie quickly.
"Is it? What does it matter?" was the dull response.
"Oh, do you not understand?" said Leslie earnestly. "When the tide
comes up here, where you are sitting, you will not be able to go on or
turn back. You see how the point stretches out?"
The dark eyes looked wearily to right and left.
"I see," she said. "No, I didn't know it. I don't know how long I've
been sitting here." She looked up at the sky. "The tide comes up here,
does it?"
"Yes, yes!" said Leslie hurriedly. "Pray come away at once!" for the
girl had made no attempt to get up. "We have only just time to get
round the point, even if we run. Come at once!" and in her eagerness
she held out her hand to help her to rise.
The girl disregarded the outstretched hand, and rose wearily, sullenly.
"I suppose I should have been drowned if you had not seen me?" she
remarked listlessly.
"Oh, I hope not; I hope not!" said Leslie. "But I am very glad I did
see you. I only caught sight of the top of your hat. You had better
take my hand. I am used to getting over the rocks and stones."
"I can get on all right," said the girl sullenly, refusing the
proffered assistance. "I'm as young as you are, and as strong," she
added, glancing out of the corners of her dark eyes at Leslie.
"I am glad you are strong," said Leslie gravely, as she looked at the
swiftly, surely incoming sea; "for we shall have to run."
Her companion stopped and looked seaward too, and with a strange
expression.
"Oh, why do you wait?" demanded Leslie. "Do you not understand that
there is not a moment to lose?"
The girl laughed a reckless, miserable laugh, which was a grotesque
reflection of the laugh which Leslie had heard on the tower when she
had last seen her.
"I was thinking if it was worth while," she said moodily.
Leslie stared at her.
"Worth while!" she echoed unconsciously.
"Yes. I'm not sure it wouldn't be better and easier to stop here and
let the water come up. It would save a lot of trouble." She laughed
again.
With a faint shudder, Leslie turned away from the dark eyes and seized
the speaker's arm.
"You must come at once!" she said firmly.
The woman drew back for a moment; then, as if yielding against her
will, allowed Leslie to draw her forward.
They hurried over the rocks in silence for a moment or two, the waves
splashing against their feet; then Leslie stopped and uttered an
exclamation, her eyes fixed on the cliff before them, her face suddenly
pale.
"What is the matter? Are we too late?" asked her companion dully and
indifferently.
"Yes, we are too late!" replied Leslie in a low voice. Then she caught
her breath and forced a smile. "Do not be frightened. We may get
round the other way; the ledge of rock is wider there, but it is more
difficult to get over. We must go back. Follow me."
She turned and sprang quickly from rock to rock, and her companion
followed her example. They gained the spot where the girl had been
sitting, but it was now covered by the sea, and they had to wade ankle
deep.
Leslie caught the girl's hand.
"Hold fast!" she said in a quick whisper. "If we gain that point there,
where the rock sticks out----."
Even as she spoke a spurt of foam covered the spot indicated, and the
waves dashed over it. She stopped and looked round her, her face white
and set.
"We are too late here, too," she said with a smothered sob. "Too late!"
and she covered her face with her hands.
The other girl leant against the cliff and stared dully at the angry
waves, creeping, creeping like some wild beast towards them.
"You mean we are going to die," she said in a low, harsh voice. "Going
to die like rats in a hole. Well," and she shrugged her shoulders, "I
don't care much, myself. You see, when you came up just now, I was
wishing I was dead."
Leslie shuddered, and put up her hand as if to stop her. Death was too
near to be spoken of so lightly.
"Yes, I was. You're shocked, I dessay. I'm sorry for you. It's a pity
you didn't stop where you were. You're not tired of life, judging by
your face."
"Tired of life!" panted Leslie; "oh, no, no!"
"So I should say," said the other sullenly. "So you don't understand
what I mean, and what I feel?"
"No, I don't understand," said Leslie, scarcely knowing what she was
saying. "But it is dreadful, dreadful to hear you, and at such a
moment. Hah!" She broke off with an exclamation of horror, and drew her
companion back close to the face of the cliff, for a wave had dashed at
their feet and wet them to the waist.
"It's coming up pretty fast," said the girl. "It won't take long to----.
Isn't there any chance for you? I don't care about myself."
Leslie screened her eyes with her hand.
"A boat might be passing," she said faintly. "Oh, to think that they
are so near--that there are people just round that bend, who, if they
knew--only knew!--would risk their lives to save us," and she sank at
the foot of the cliff and hid her face in her hands.
"I'm sorry," said the other. "It's rough on you to lose your life for
me, a stranger, too."
Leslie sprang up, her eyes wild with despair.
"We will not die!" she cried. "We will not! Do you hear? Oh, I cannot
die; I cannot leave him--like this!" and she beat her hands together.
"You're thinking of your husband--who?" asked the other, eyeing her
half pityingly. "It's always a man. That's where I've got the pull of
you," and she laughed. "My man wouldn't care whether I lived or died.
He's left me already."
The anguish in her voice, the reckless despair, went to Leslie's heart.
She shuddered as she looked at the dark eyes.
"Left you!" she breathed. "Oh, now I understand! Ah, yes; I know now
why you want to die."
"Yes," was the bitter response. "That's where we women are such
fools. We care. Men don't. You think your husband, or sweetheart, or
whoever he is, will break his heart for the loss of you!" she laughed
mockingly. "Not he! They don't break their hearts so easily! He'll get
over it and marry another woman almost before you're--cold in your
grave, I was going to say."
Leslie shrank back from her as far as she could, and put her hands up
to her ears.
"Oh, hush, hush!" she panted. "It is not true! It is wicked and
false! I will not listen to you. Oh, forgive me!" she broke off,
her indignation and horror softened by the misery on the white face
and dark eyes staring so hopelessly at the angry sea. "How you must
have suffered, how you must have loved him to be so wretched, so
indifferent."
"Oh, yes, I loved him. I loved him--well, as much as you loved the man
you're thinking of----."
"When--when did it happen--when did he leave you? Why? Tell me," said
Leslie. "Let us talk--try and forget that it is coming nearer and
nearer, that we have only a few minutes--"
"Yes, we haven't long," was the response. "I've been watching that rock
there, almost in a line with us. You could see the top a moment ago;
it's covered now. When did he leave me? Only a few nights ago. Why? The
old story. He got tired of me, I suppose. Anyhow, he met someone else."
"And--and you were to have been his wife!" breathed Leslie pityingly.
"And you loved him! Oh, how could he be so cruel, so heartless?"
The other looked down at her, and laughed harshly.
"Why, men are like that, all of them."
"No, no! Not all! They are not all so base, so vile."
"You think so. You wait! Perhaps your turn will come. But I forgot,"
she laughed again. "Your man won't have the chance to leave you--there,
I beg your pardon," for Leslie had shrunk away from her. "Don't mind me
or what I say. I'm half out of my mind. I've had no sleep since--since
he left me, and I've come a long journey, and eaten nothing. Yes, I'm
half mad. I was a fool to follow him. I ought to have stayed at home;
but I've got my punishment."
"You came after him? He is here, then?" asked Leslie in a pitying
whisper, watching the waves as she spoke.
"Yes," said she; then with a sigh, "Yes, and I've seen him. I meant to
speak to him, to--to--try and get him back; but my heart failed me, and
I crept out here to be alone. It wasn't only to see him that I came. I
wanted to see her."
"Her?" repeated Leslie, half absently.
"Yes. The woman that stole him from me. But it doesn't matter now.
Nothing matters to us two, does it? How much longer?"
The question almost drove Leslie frantic with agony, the anguish of
despair. It was all very well for this poor creature, abandoned,
deserted by the man she loved, to take death so coolly; but she,
Leslie, was not deserted and unhappy. Her lover, her Yorke, was going
to make her his wife; in a few days, a few hours, he would be waiting
for her. Yorke, Yorke! Her heart called to him. And though the name did
not leave her lips, the voice within her seemed to give her courage, to
fill her with a fierce, almost savage, determination to live.
She looked up at the cliff with straining eyes. It was almost
perpendicular and smooth just above them, but a little further along
there were a few scrubby bushes projecting from the surface. It was
just possible, if they could reach those, that they might at least gain
some few inches of foothold. Just possible, though the mere thought of
the attempt made her tremble.
"What are you staring up there for?" asked her companion. "You couldn't
climb it, if you tried."
"No," panted Leslie. "But we will try!"
The other shook heir head, but Leslie seized her by the hand.
"Come!" she gasped hoarsely. "Better to try and--and fall, than stand
here to wait for death. I cannot wait! Come, hold my hand tightly. We
will escape or die together."
As if she had caught something of Leslie's frantic desire of life, the
other girl gripped Leslie's hand.
"Come on, then," she said. "Though you'd have more chance alone."
"No, no! Together or not at all," cried Leslie, and she plunged into
the water.
For a moment or two it seemed as if they would be carried off their
feet, as if they had rushed into the arms of the death from which they
had been shrinking; but they were both young and strong, and they
accomplished together that which would have been impossible if they had
been separate.
Gasping for breath, half blinded by the spray, deafened by the roar of
the waves, they stood on a narrow ledge of rock, clutching at the bush
above their heads, the water rushing nearly to their knees.