The crowd within the arcade was in a wild panic of terror. I was pushed
and shoved, knocked down by heedless, rushing figures. Everyone was
trying to get outside. In a moment I was swept away. I could not get
back to where I was sitting, or even tell where the spot had been.
Martt and Frannie I could not see; the place was all a dim chaos of
disheveled, panic-stricken figures. A moment before they had been so
gay and jaunty! . . .
A girl rushed past me. The veiling had been torn from her shoulders.
Her eyes for an instant met mine, as she searched my face hoping to
recognize in me the companion from whom she had been separated. Her
dark eyes were wide, red-rimmed with fear. Her face, with all the
beauty of youth gone from it, was chalk-white.
She turned and rushed away from me. I thought again, "In the midst of
life . . . why, this is horrible!" That giant off there--he could wade
to the island in a few moments. . . .
I fought my way out of the arcade, out under the trees by the edge
of the lagoon. There was more room out there. In the starlight I
could see figures rushing aimlessly away, scattering under the
lantern-flowers . . . others hurriedly crowding the boats. One boat was
overturned. I wondered vaguely if the struggling figures in the water
would be drowned.
Back near the wall of the arcade I saw a girl's figure running. It
seemed familiar. Was it Frannie? I dashed after her. But people running
in between us blocked me. I lost sight of her; saw her momentarily as
she seemed to dart around the farther arcade corner. But when I got
there, she was not in sight. Was it Frannie? Had she gone this way? Or
into that door, back into the rear of the arcade?
I stood in doubt. Then I saw Brett, running past me, out under the
lantern-flowers some fifty feet away. His cloak was discarded; he was
bare-headed. Brett in his marriage robe! Black and white, with golden
tassels gayly dangling from the rolled skirt of his jacket. He was
disheveled; as he ran, I saw him tear off the jacket impatiently and
toss it away.
"Brett! Oh, Brett!"