“Won’t you wait a little longer,” Mrs. Landry asked, “until the storm lets up a bit?”
“Thank you, but I must get back. I have stayed away too long already. My humble houseboat is alone. Come, Tania,” he replied and, giving them all a shy smile, he stepped out on the porch.
“But you’ll catch cold—the rain——” Arden began.
“It has almost stopped,” Dimitri Uzlov smiled. “We must not stay any longer. I am a solitary person. But thank you.” And he was gone, leaving only the telltale puddles behind him.
As they watched from the window they could see him walking down the damp sand in the direction of the houseboat with Tania, the Russian wolfhound, at his heels, looking thinner than ever because of the way her silk hair lay matted with the rain.
Like a character from the “King of the Golden River” he looked, getting farther and farther away until a sand-dune suddenly cut off their sight of him.
Only the footsteps were left, big ones for Dimitri and a series of small holes where the dainty Tania had followed him.
“What a strange man!” Mrs. Landry exclaimed.
“I think he’s just awfully shy,” Arden said. “I suppose he couldn’t bear to come in with all us women staring at him.”
“Perhaps you’re right, my dear,” Terry’s mother answered and once more turned to the window.