“Then I love God, and I love you. May I give you a kiss, just as you kissed me? I want to show you how I love you,” cries Léonie, with a half sob. “No one has ever been kind to me like this before.”
She rises as she speaks, and takes one of Gloria’s hands. This latter is almost startled by the extraordinary likeness which for a brief moment sweeps across the girl’s features, a likeness to Bernie Fontenoy.
There is a terrible crash overhead. It sounds like falling timber. Again, a rush of feet, and Gloria and Léonie hear the skipper’s voice raised in loud command.
“He is ordering out the boat, Léonie. That must have been the mast that went with that crash. I can feel by the movement of the ship that she’s helpless. We shall drift on the rocks, and then she’ll soon break up,” exclaims Gloria, almost eagerly.
“Then we shall be drowned,” answers her companion in a quiet, composed voice. “I’m not afraid. I think I should have been if this had happened yesterday, but I am not now.”
She stops suddenly as the cabin door creaks open to admit Lord Westray.
He looks flurried and anxious, but his glance at once seeks Gloria.
“The smack is practically a wreck,” he says quickly, “and we are going to take to the boat. I will save you if you will promise me what I asked you.”
“Go!” cries Gloria sternly. “Now you know that I will die rather than do so. Go, bad man! and may God have mercy on you.”
He looks at her furiously. But there is no time for arguing; the skipper is calling to him to hurry.