Trist laughed and rose to his feet. His pipe was empty, and having knocked the ashes out against the rail, he dropped it into his pocket. Then he stood before her waiting until she should make a movement to go below.
'Nevertheless,' said Mrs. Wylie casually, without looking up as she drew her shawl comfortably around her previous to rising'—nevertheless, I should like you to understand that if ever I can be of use to you (for an old woman might on occasions be useful to the most independent of young men, Theo), I am ready to do anything for you. Any little odd maternal jobs without pretending to the maternal honour, you understand.'
She rose and stepped to the side of the vessel, looking round the fjord and over the mountains in a practical, weather-wise way. Trist followed her, and stood a little behind, in his still unemotional manner, with his meek eyes raised to a distant snowfield, where the pink reflection of the north-western sky hovered yet.
'It need not be a one-sided transaction,' he said in the same worldly, hopelessly every-day tone of voice. 'There may be little odd filial jobs without acknowledging the filial ties, you understand.'
Mrs. Wylie laughed her easy, flowing laugh, and walked briskly forward; for the Admiral was calling her now in his genial, tyrannical autocracy.
'Yes,' she said cheerily. 'It may be so.'
And so this compact was made at last—a compact of which his share was to be commenced rudely and suddenly within twenty-four hours, while hers was harder perhaps, and infinitely sadder, extending into years yet unopened and unthought of.
CHAPTER VI.
A SHADOW.
The two fishermen went off in opposite directions again the next day, the Admiral taking the gig and sailing down the fjord to the distant river, while Trist went ashore in Nielsen's boat to fish the stream that ran past the little mountain homestead.