For a few minutes they sat gazing at each other in silence. She had her breath to get. She thought it would never come back.
The man spoke first.
"Well, you made a job of it," he said.
She didn't answer.
"But you don't know much about the water, do you?"
"I've never seen the sea till to-day," said Helen slowly.
He laughed a little. "I expect you've seen enough of it to-day. But where do you live, then, that you've never seen the sea? In the middle of the earth?"
"No," said Helen, "I live in a mill."
His eyelids flickered. "Do you? Yes, of course you do. I might have guessed it."
"How should you guess it?"