The old sailor was in the stern of the boat, steering, while the boy managed the brown sail. Kitty was next to Stevan, her mother next to her, opposite to her the curé, who had taken out a small breviary, and next to him Everitt. Everitt, having arranged himself and turned up the collar of his ulster, began to look about him at his companions. Mrs Lascelles saw a perception that she was English begin to dawn in his mind, then he glanced at Kitty, and she fancied a sudden suspicion crossed it. She took her resolution in a moment; the flash of knowledge would have to come sooner or later; and for the girl to stare persistently in an opposite direction would only give him an impression of consciousness on her part, which, of all things, had better be avoided. She touched her to emphasise her words, pointed directly opposite, and said—
“Kitty, do you suppose that to be Gavr Innis?”
For an instant the girl hesitated, but she felt and understood her mother’s momentary pressure on her arm, and turned her glowing face in Everitt’s direction. He was looking full at her, and Mrs Lascelles, who watched him closely, saw his sudden start and that he became pale. Kitty, when she caught his eye, bowed slightly, and he immediately lifted his hat and looked at Mrs Lascelles, who leaned forward.
“I think,” she said, and there was no cordiality in her manner, “that it is Mr Everitt.” She was angry, but was quite at her ease; he was delighted, and yet felt extremely awkward. He murmured something about the unexpectedness of the meeting. Mrs Lascelles bowed again, and made a remark to her daughter as if the other slight conversation were at an end. But Everitt was not the man to be put on one side in this easy fashion. He moved to the cross-seat, where he was next to Mrs Lascelles.
“This is a strange meeting, and a strange place for an explanation,” he began rapidly; “yet I can’t afford to let any opportunity slip.”
“There is no need of an explanation,” said Mrs Lascelles, hastily.
“Oh, there is!” he said, shaking his head and smiling. “Even at the risk of once more seeming to force myself upon you, I must ask you to let me apologise in the fullest manner possible for a most thoughtless act.”
He did not look at Kitty; the girl leant back, with her eyes fixed on her hands, which lay loosely in her lap. The old brown-faced patron was stooping forward, one arm on the tiller, the other on his knee, his whole attention absorbed by the still freshening wind, and the long roll of breakers farther out in the bay, the thunder of which came in above the rush of wind and rain. As for the curé, apparently absorbed in his breviary, he was not unconscious of the little drama which was being played before him. He now and then glanced from Everitt to Kitty with an air of interest. Mrs Lascelles, however, was not to be melted into cordiality.
“After an apology,” she returned, “there is nothing to be said. I hoped that Mrs Marchmont would have expressed this to you. And, permit me to say, that since it was, as you describe it, a thoughtless act, it will be as well now for us to allude to it no more.”
“That is easier for you than for me,” he said, looking at her appealingly.