Eliza's cheeks were burning now, her aching hands relaxed their hold, and she drew a deep breath—the first of which she had been conscious since the start, fifteen minutes before.
"Now, on with your boots and your sweater. We'll have an hour's wait for Natalie."
She gave a cry of surprise and offered him a glimpse of a trim ankle and a dripping foot.
"See! They're wet, and I wriggled my toes right through my stockings. I NEVER was so excited."
The boatman fastened the painter and resumed his outer clothing. O'Neil lit a cigar and asked:
"Tell me, why did you insist on coming?"
"I was afraid something might happen to you."
He raised his brows, and she flushed. "Don't you understand? Dan would never have forgiven me, and—and—I just HAD to come, that's all. It's corking material for me—I thought you might upset, and I—I don't know why I insisted." She bent over her stubborn boots, hiding her face. She was flaming to the ears, for suddenly she knew the reason that had prompted her. It rushed upon her like a sense of great shame. She recalled the desperate grip at her heart when she had seen him ready to leave, the wildness of her longing to share his danger, the black fear that he might meet disaster alone. It had all come without warning, and there had been no time for self-consciousness, but now she realized the truth. The poignant pain of it made her fingers clumsy and sent that flood of scarlet to her neck and ears.
When Natalie arrived they cast off, and the remaining miles were made in a few hours.
Appleton joined them for lunch in the tent they remembered so well, and professed to be shocked at the report of his sister's foolhardiness. But whatever may have been Natalie's fear of ridicule, it promptly disappeared under his complete indorsement of her wisdom in refraining from such a mad adventure. As if to put her even more at ease, O'Neil was especially attentive to her; and Eliza reflected gloomily that men, after all, dislike bravado in women, that a trapeze artist or a lady balloonist inspires only a qualified admiration.