"Don't examine my poor back to-night. I don't believe I am any the worse. The salt water may have strengthened it. I did not strain it in any way."
And it was marvellous that she was not seriously the worse for her accident. She kept to her bed for three or four days, then was moved out to her couch, but the doctor forbade any more loch expeditions.
"The weather is too treacherous, be content to lie by the side of it; the open-air is good for you, but don't attempt the punt again."
"Oh," groaned Rowena, "instead of widening my borders, I have to narrow them!"
She felt very low and depressed for a day, then recovered her spirits. General Macdonald, coming to inquire for her, found her outside on the terrace, looking rather white, but with her usual bright smile.
"Well," he said, "I thought it was all up with you the other day, and now I hear you are none the worse for your spill."
"Not a bit worse," said Rowena, "but I have been thinking rather hard. What a bit of luck you came this way! I don't believe Colin would have ever towed me to shore. He's a good swimmer, but his one idea was to get hold of the punt and then come for me. And I don't think I should have lasted out long enough."
"I don't believe in luck," said the General gravely. "I had no intention of coming over to see you that afternoon. I was reading in my study and I came across a bit that I liked in one of my old books, and suddenly thought I would like to share it with you. But when I got out into the hall Mysie begged me to take her upon the moors. I very nearly did; but a strong persistent sense of wanting to get to you made me send her away disconsolate, and I came off post haste. I had only just arrived when the squall came on, and we saw your punt capsize from the terrace here. Don't you think I was sent to you?"
"By whom? By my guardian angel, I suppose, if I have one. If you had not come and I had gone down, I wonder where I should be to-day?"
There was a silence, then Rowena looked straight at him with shining eyes.