"Well?"
Thereupon Eve rose quietly from her stone, and dragged Olivia up from
hers, much against her will, and they wandered off to see the children
at their clamming; but she gave me a significant look as she went. So I
obediently drifted off along the shore. I was sorry to go, for I would
have liked to hear what followed. And I drifted back again, and to and
fro, like a shadow, but always Bobby was talking earnestly to Elizabeth,
and Elizabeth looked up at Bobby, and laughed and shook her head. And at
last Elizabeth rose, and they two wandered off down the shore toward Old
Goodwin's stone pier. I caught a word or two of Bobby's as they went. I
thought he was asking her what she was. "What are you?" was all I heard;
and she replied, very probably, that she was a teacher of swimming and
dancing. And she turned and waved her hand to us, and they were gone.
Then Eve stirred, and called Tidda, who came hugging close her old tin
can dripping mud down upon her dress. Olivia was already on the path to
the great house, but Old Goodwin turned back.
"Adam," he said, smiling, "I have retired from business. I thought you
might like to know. It seemed as good a time as any."
It was what I have been urging upon him these ten years.
"There will be enough to keep me occupied," he added, answering my
unspoken question. "A matter that I have in mind. I will tell you about
it soon."
And he turned again, and was gone up the path.
I walked with Eve along the shore, and I wondered. I must have been
mistaken in those words of Bobby's. How could he have asked her that?