“Oh yes,” recognized Kennedy, as Watkins, who had brought them down, appeared. “Some stuff I had brought from the city. Will you help me down to the dock with them?”
The boy was more than willing. Not only were the packages to be taken away from his door, but Kennedy had crossed his palm with a coin. With Watkins he carried the things down.
Kennedy had no intention at present, evidently, of using the material which had come from New York, but left it in the little summer-house in charge of the student.
We were about to turn back to the Casino and the Lodge, when Craig caught my eye and nodded in the direction of the beach. There I could see the solitary figure of a girl coming slowly along. It was Winifred Walcott. I watched her. Evidently she had been out for a walk alone.
Now and then she gave a quick glance across the water and I soon realized that it was at the Sybarite she looked. Shelby had long since reached the yacht, but apparently she had seen his tender dashing out there. I could not help but think of the stroll that Shelby had taken with Paquita the night before down the beach in the same direction. Was Winifred thinking of it, too, and was she sorry that she had dismissed him without accepting his explanation at its face value?
“That shows what a great part chance plays in our lives,” mused Kennedy to me, as we watched her. “They’re thinking of each other. If Shelby had been a few minutes later, or she had been a few minutes earlier, they would have met. I suppose they are both too proud to go to each other now.”
“You’re not contemplating being a matchmaker?” I hazarded.
“On the contrary,” he smiled, “I think we shall gain more by letting events take their natural course. No, chance must bring them together again.”
Miss Walcott had seen us by this time, and seemed to realize that we were talking about her, for she quickened her pace and, instead of coming up to the summer-house, left the beach by another flight of steps, though not so far away that we could not see a faint flush on her cheeks as she purposely avoided us.
We, too, went toward the Lodge, but did not overtake her.