"The most beautiful spot in the world—and seen with the most charming companions," returned the Count, bowing towards Deborah, but moving up to the high side as they came into the wind.
Deborah knew instantly that their afternoon was over, and she was chagrined that she had allowed him to be weary of her. Pushing Charles from the tiller, she suddenly took his place.
"There, now you shall rest, or unfasten the sheet and manage that while I wake myself up!" she said. And young Charles obediently moved up beside Claude and took unto himself the management of the sail, while Deborah, sitting straight to the freshening wind, shook herself out mentally, and fastened her thoughts upon the tiller. Now, indeed, as she brought the boat so close into the wind that the water swirled gently over the low side, de Mailly turned towards her again. He was willing to be upset if she liked; but he did not care to have an accident occur because he had made her absent-minded. Deborah, however, was not thinking of him at all. Her skilful hand was making the little vessel fly, and there would be no false moves on her part. When they came about upon the second tack the sail flapped for but one-quarter of a second. As it filled with a puff, the little yacht fairly leaped ahead.
"Jack me, Deb, if that wasn't the prettiest turn I ever saw!" cried young Charles, as he manipulated the sheet.
"'Twas half you, Charlie. I must have let her go had you not brought her up just at the right instant."
"And did Mistress Deborah learn the management of a boat under you, sir?" asked Claude.
"Mine and my father's."
Claude settled back and tried to bring his mind to other subjects; but for the moment Deborah had completely fascinated him. He could do nothing better than compare her to all those other women to whom she was indeed incomparable, to try to fathom the many expressions he had seen in her eyes, and seek to determine which was the normal one. And so they left behind the upper windings of the river and neared at last the wharf of the Trevor place. The sun hung low over the tree-tops as Deborah stepped from the boat and held out her hand to Charles.
"Indeed, I am beholden to you. We have never had so beautiful a sail."
"I trust, Mistress Travis, that it will not be the last in which I shall be permitted to join you?" put in Claude, hastily, as she courtesied to him, and would have been off.