She rose instantly.
"I beg your pardon," she said, "I ought to have thought;" but still, as she fastened her cloak, she continued to keep her eyes fixed upon the veil of fog which hung between her and the river.
Mr. Strafford and Lucia both stopped to say a few words to Sunflower, who was still busy with her cakes, but Mrs. Costello never ceased to look out until she was obliged to follow the others from the house. The air was bitterly cold; and, hastened by storm and mist, the night was coming on fast. They paused for a moment outside the wicket; and Mrs. Costello, looking at Mr. Strafford with a consciousness that her wish was foolish and unreasonable, said—
"I should like to go down quite to the shore, just for a moment, to try if I can see anything."
He turned instantly and walked with her to the very extremity of the little point, Lucia following.
They stood exactly on the spot where she had landed as a bride, and looked out into the darkness. Suddenly she grasped Mr. Strafford's arm.
"Listen!" she said, "there are oars close by."
"Impossible," he answered. "See, the steamer's lights are just there opposite us. It must be turning round to go into Claremont."
But she bent her head forward listening. For even through the beat of the paddles, which she could now distinguish plainly, it still seemed that she heard the sound of oars, and she thought,
"They have given up trying to use their sails, and taken to rowing."