"Why can't he?" said Cicely, turning and looking at her.
"It's too far," answered Eve, in a trembling voice.
"Perhaps he has gone for a boat," Cicely suggested.
"Yes, perhaps he has," Eve assented, eagerly. And for a moment the two
women gazed southward with the same hopefulness.
Then Eve came back to reality. "What are we thinking of? Do you want to
have Jack killed?"
Cicely threw up her arms. "Oh, if it weren't for Jack!" Her despair at
that moment gave her majesty.
"Give him to me; let _me_ take him away," urged Eve again.
"I will never give him to any one; I will never leave him, never."
"Then you must both go with me for the present; we will go farther north
than Savannah; we will go to New York."
"There is only one place I will go to--one person, and that is Paul;
Ferdie _loves_ Paul;--I will go nowhere else."
"Very well; we will go to Paul."
The struggle was over; Cicely's voice had grown lifeless. Little Jack,
tired out, laid himself despairingly down on the sand; she sat down
beside him, rearranged the shawl under him and over him, and then, as he
fell asleep, she clasped her hands round her knees, and waited inertly,
her eyes fixed on the opposite beach.
Eve, standing behind her, also watched the home-island. "If I could only
see him!" was her constant prayer. She was even ready to accept the
sight of a boat shooting from the shadows which lay dark on the western
side, a boat coming in pursuit; he would have had time, perhaps, to get
to the skiff which was kept on that side, not far from the point; he
knew where all the boats were. Five minutes--six--had elapsed since they
landed; yes, he would have had time. She looked and looked; she was
almost sure that she saw a boat advancing, and clasped her hands in joy.
But where could they go, in case he should really come? To Singleton
House, where there was only a lame old man, and women? There was no door
there which he could not batter down, no lock which could keep him
out--the terrible, beautiful madman. No; it was better to think, to
believe, that he _could_ not come.
She walked back to the trees that skirted the beach, leaned her clasped
arms against the trunk of one of them, and, laying her head upon the arm
that was uppermost, stood motionless.