She seemed utterly unconscious of his presence—or pretending to be. Then her eyes fell to the water alongside and the dinghy. The whistling ceased and her face turned to him.
“Say,” said Jude, “where did you learn to tie up boats?”
He came beside her.
“What’s the matter?”
“Nothing at present, but give her half an hour and she’d work herself free of that tomfool knot.”
“I’ll go down and retie it.”
“No use in troubling, I’m going off in her in a minute, and she’ll hang there till I’m ready.”
“Where are you going?”
“Never you mind! You’ve been playing about on the reef, and you’ve got to stick here now and boil the potatoes! Me alone here all the morning!”
“Why, I wasn’t more than an hour on the reef—and I never knew you wanted to go. If I had, I shouldn’t have gone, honestly I shouldn’t.”