"Au revoir, Marie," said Madame.
"Au 'voir, Madame," said the maid.
Madame Gilbert watched the boat buzz away, and nodded approvingly.
"She has pluck," she murmured. "That is much. We will reconsider the second part of the programme. But for the present it shall hang like a sharp sword over Marie's head."
Marie watched Madame standing there on the shore, and smiled grimly.
"At least," thought she, "I have told Willie that his goddess is a widow. That will take a bit of the gilt and wings off her." From which it would appear that Marie, though subdued and humbled, was not in the least repentant.
CHAPTER XV TURTLE
Willatopy did not immediately discover that Marie had been forcibly embarked and definitely severed from his embraces. He did not attend the place of tryst next day, for he was otherwise engaged. One of his brown boys had caught a "sucker," which he pronounced to be in excellent condition for the chase; a sucker suggested turtle; and the claims, first of sport and secondly of turtle, cooked native fashion in its own juices, banished all thoughts of Marie from his mind. Much more civilised men than the Twenty-Eighth Baron of Topsham have subordinated Love to Sport and the Table.