Returning a few moments later Billy discovered his other companion, a very damp and discomfited mermaid, seated somewhat perilously upon the bottom of their wrecked craft.
“I never knew such behavior in my life, Billy Webster,” she began angrily, as soon as she was able to get her wet hair out of her mouth. “The idea of your going all the way into shore with Mollie and leaving me to drown. You might at least have seen that I got safe hold of your old boat first.”
“Yes, I know; I am sorry,” Billy replied, resting one hand on the side of his skiff and so bringing his head up out of the water in order to speak more distinctly. “But you see, Polly, I knew you could swim and Mollie is so easily frightened and it all came so suddenly, the boat’s overturning with that heavy gust of wind. To tell you the truth, I didn’t even remember you were aboard until Mollie began asking for you. I wonder if you would mind helping me get this skiff right side up. It would be easier for us to paddle in than for me to have to swim with you.”
Gasping, Polly slid off her perch.
“After that extra avalanche of cold water nothing matters,” she remarked icily. However, her companion did not even hear her.
Safe on land again, Polly waited under a tree while the young man pulled his boat ashore. Her sister had gone ahead to send some one down with blankets and umbrellas. In spite of the rain, damp clothes and the shock of her recent experience, Polly O’Neill was not conscious of feeling particularly cold.
“I hope you are not very uncomfortable, and that our accident won’t make you ill again,” Billy Webster said a few moments later as he joined her. “I suppose I do owe you a little more explanation for having ignored you so completely. But you see, just about five minutes before you insisted on getting into our boat Mollie had promised to be my wife. We did not dare talk very much after you came on board, but you can understand that I simply wasn’t able to think of any one else. You see I have loved Mollie ever since that day when we were children and she bound up the wound you had made in my head.”
Once more Polly gasped slightly, and of course she was beginning to feel somewhat chilled.
Billy Webster looked at her severely. “Oh, of course I did think I was in love with you, Polly, for a year or so, I remember. But that was simply because I had not then learned to understand Mollie’s true character. I used to believe it would be a fine thing to have a strong influence over you and try to show you the way you should go.” Here Billy laughed, and he was very handsome with his damp hair pushed back over his bronzed face and his wet clothes showing the outline of his splendid boyish figure, matured and strengthened by his outdoor life.
“But you see, Polly, I believe nobody is ever going to be able to influence you to any great extent,” he continued teasingly, “and at any rate you and I will never have half the chances to quarrel that we would have had if we had ever learned to like each other. I forgive you everything now for Mollie’s sake.”