“But where is she going?”
“To the rocks off there, Miss Rowrer.”
Suzanne pointed to the shoals on which the sea was breaking.
“Well,” Ethel said, to quiet Suzanne, “Helia is not lost. If I had been on the deck I would have asked her not to do it. But one who swims as she does has nothing to fear. I only hope she won’t delay, so as to be back in time for the evening’s reception.”
“If only she comes back!”
“Oh, now! it’s only child’s play for her,” said Miss Rowrer, following with her glass Helia’s movements.
For any one else than Helia the undertaking would have been hazardous, because of the eddies among the rocks. She might also hit against some point just hidden beneath the water. There was a striking contrast between the immense cliff and the almost imperceptible swimmer, who was going farther and farther away.
The marvelous sky had become more magnificent still. The sea was resplendent, and now and then a luminous wake showed behind Helia; and then it would suddenly be quenched in the blackness of the shoal water.
“How little Helia seems in all that immensity!” Ethel said to Phil, who had joined her.
“She has reached the rocks—she is going up them,” said Phil.