"And you couldn't get near?" said a man.
She looked round.
"Do you think we'd be here without her if there'd been half a chance?" she said, reproachfully.
"Ay, ay!" said the old boatswain. "Well, well, that settles it, and that's some'at of a comfort! The poor soul's gone! Don't 'ee cry, missis!" he added as he helped Mrs. Day out of the boat.
It so happened that as she stepped on the beach she was near Austin Ambrose.
He had been listening in a kind of stupor, his eyes wandering from Mrs. Day's face to her husband's.
At the moment of her landing he was so near that her arm touched his.
As it did so his eyes fell upon the shawl which she had been pressing to her eyes.
The sun was shining full on it, and in the dull vague fashion peculiar to his frame of mind his eye was following the pattern.
Suddenly he started, and a light shone in his eyes.