The girl herself was aware of strange happenings within her. More, she knew that the tall young man was responsible for them.
A great new life, full of shadows and delicious dangers, was surging up in her heart, sweeping across the sands of her childhood, obliterating tide-marks, swinging her off her feet, and carrying her forward under bare stars toward the Unknown.
She fought against the invasion of this Sea, struggling to find footing on the familiar bottom.
That Sea and Mr. Silver were intimately connected. Sometimes, indeed, the girl could not distinguish one from the other. Was it the Sea which bore Mr. Silver in upon her resisting mind?—or was it Mr. Silver who trailed the Sea after him like a cloud?
Her helplessness angered and humiliated her. She fought fiercely and in vain. That strong will of hers, which had never yet met its match, was impotent now. This Thing, this Sea, this Man, crept in upon her like a mist, invading her very sanctuaries.
She might close the doors and lock them—to no purpose.
She was angry, excited, not entirely displeased.
The change wrought in her swiftly. At least she had the sense that she was embarking on a great adventure; and her romantic spirit answered to the appeal.
She became quieter and passed much time in her room alone.
Mr. Silver kept knocking at the door in the loft which he had never entered; but she refused to open to him.