She knew they were being driven on the rocks, but she stared at them dully, saying over and over again:
"I cannot help you."
And then distinctly the voice of her boy lover spoke to her:
"I lost my life for such as these; will you not save them? Is it not your turn?"
And then she plunged into the foaming sea, and battled for her life as she swam to meet that boat. She found an end of rope which the children flung out, and with this wound round her body, she swam back to the beach and rocks. All the time that she was struggling with the waves, she had the consciousness that her lover was watching for and waiting for her, and when finally the beach was reached, she opened her arms to embrace him. But to her consternation, the man who stood like a sentinel against the cliffs, and who moved forwards to meet her, was not her lover, but Justin Holme!
With a cry of anguish, she awoke.
There was no more sleep that night.
When the morning came she rose with an aching head and troubled heart.
But she found herself instinctively imagining the relief and comfort a capable woman might bring to that disordered and most unhappy home. And though one part of her stoutly resisted all thoughts of herself being that one, another part of her was mentally arranging and sorting out her personal possessions with the view of going up North.