"He is answerable to you," she said quickly. "You and I are answerable to one another, and to God, and to ourselves—to all that has made us what we are. I do not think you could trespass outside all that, any more than I could."
"I do not think I could. I am honoured by your confidence in me."
He helped her ashore, and they filled the buckets at the pools, and then she expressed a wish to see something more of this sandbank where they might have to pass the rest of their lives.
So they threaded their way among the hummocks to the northern shore, and, at the first green valley they came to, she went down on her knees and examined carefully the nestling growths on which the rabbits fed, and found among them certain pungent little plants which she thought might serve for flavouring, and they gathered enough to experiment with.
The firm smooth tidal beach, with the ripples creaming up it in sibilant whispers tempted her to bare feet, and she handed him her shoes and splashed along as joyously as a child.
"It is a most delightful island," she said. "I do not think I would ever tire of it."
"Oh, yes, you would. It is all just the same, you see. You can walk on and on like this and round the other side for forty or fifty miles, and every bit of it is just like the rest."
"I think it is beautiful."
"It gets monotonous in time. The only diversion is the pile of wreckage down yonder. That is constantly changing and growing."
"And discovering more skeletons! It feels odd to think that I should have been one myself if you two had not happened to be here."