Kathleen looked at the flood, and then at Sylvia's sleepy face and dreamy eyes.
"I wonder if you could love?" she asked.
"I wonder, too. Sometimes I scoff at the very thought of such a thing, and sometimes I believe that I could be as wild and turbulent as the river is to-day."
Beyond the gorge the river widens out into a broad estuary before it enters the sea. It is across this estuary that the lower bridge has been built. Just below it is the bar, where river and sea were battling in a wild confusion.
When Kathleen saw that the bridge was half submerged, and that the current was still strong, though not to be compared in violence with the maelstrom that poured through the gorge, she reined her horse in.
"We must turn round and ride home the way we came," she said.
"Turn around? Why should we? I intend to cross. I can see Denis Quirk on the farther bank."
"And he is warning us to turn back," said Kathleen.
"The more reason to go on. Follow me if you dare."