"We shall see!" she answered, with bold defiance, undaunted by his threatening words.
Then, as the little babe in her arms began to moan pitifully again, she remembered the dreadful trouble that had sent her out into the rain, and turning from him with a sudden wail of grief, she began to run along the shore, looking wildly around for some trace of the lost one.
She heard Howard's footsteps behind her, and redoubled her speed, but in a minute his hand fell on her shoulder, arresting her flight. He spoke hastily:
"I heard you calling for Lora before I met you—speak, tell me if she also is wandering out here like a madwoman, and why?"
She turned on him fiercely.
"What does it matter to you, Howard Templeton?"
"If she is lost I can help you to find her," he retorted. "What can you do? A frail woman wandering in the rain with a helpless babe in your arms!"
Bitterly as she hated him, an overpowering sense of the truth of his words rushed over her.
She hated that he should help her and yet she could not let her own angry scruples stand in the way of finding Lora.
She looked up at him and the hot tears brimmed over in her black eyes and splashed upon her white cheeks.