There was a pause, and then, in a whisper,
"Victor!"
"Fenella!"
"Good-night!"
It had been like a kiss.
Stowell went to his cabin in rapture, in pain, with a delicious thrill and a sense of stifling hypocrisy. What a hypocrite he had been! It was not to resist temptation but to dally with it that he had come on this cruise.
He was there under false pretences. He had pledged himself to the girl at Derby Haven, and yet....
Thank God, he had gone no farther! There was only one way of escape from the perpetual fire of temptation—to hasten his marriage with Bessie Collister. He must see her as soon as possible and suggest that they should marry immediately. It was heart-breaking, but there was no help for it, if he was to stand upright as an honourable man.
Dan Baldromma? Well, what of him? He could shut the door on Dan—of course he could!
Next morning Stowell was the first on deck. The air was salt and chill; the day had not yet opened its eyes; there was a whirring of wings and a calling of sea-birds; and through a sleepy white mist, that might have been the smoke of the moon, the herring fleet were coming like pale ghosts back to harbour.