Frank pushed the boat out from the bank and jumped in.
"Then it is all over," he said. "I must go home at once. I must get on with the portrait immediately. I cannot last if I am not quick. There's no time to lose, Margy. Please let me get back at once."
He paused a moment.
"Margy, give me one kiss, will you?" he said. "Perhaps, perhaps— Ah, my darling, cannot you do what I ask?"
He had raised himself and clung round her neck, kissing her again and again. But she, afraid of yielding, afraid of sacrificing her reason even to that she loved best in the world, unwound his arms.
"No, Frank, I have said I cannot. Oh, my dear, don't you understand? Frank, Frank!"
But he shook his head and took up the oar.
"Why are you in such a hurry?" she asked, after a moment, seeing he did not look at her again. "What time is it?"
"I don't know," said Frank, quickly. "I only know that if I am to finish it I must finish it at once. It will take us nearly an hour to get home, and it is too dark to work after five."
The wind, since that sudden lull, had blown only fitfully by gusts, and by the time they had emerged into the estuary it had died out altogether.