She went back to the dressing-room and closed the door behind her. Then she went to the window.
The tide was low, the sea still dark, and on the horizon of it a bank of saffron, from which in time the sun would appear.
On the far edge of the sands, pearl-hued and desolate, the waves stirred faintly. All else was stillness and immensity. Not a soul, not a ship, not a movement.
The sweep, the nakedness, the inexorable passivity of earth and sky and sea, man-forsaken and forlorn, seemed for once to affect the girl with fear. She retired hastily to her bed and sought the shelter of sleep.
CHAPTER XXXIX
THE LASH AGAIN
In a week the Captain was in the sea again, and living the same fiercely strenuous life he had done before his attack.
Ernie congratulated him upon his recovery with a cheerfulness he by no means felt.
A question haunted him.
Was Ruth still sleeping in the dressing-room? ...