WE INVESTIGATE THE AZOTEA.
Hildegarde gave a cry of joy at sight of me, advanced a step, holding out her arms, and springing past Robbins, I snatched her to my heart.
Bless her, she did not shrink back from me in the least, and yet I am sure I must have presented a far from fastidious appearance at that moment, not having been given an opportunity to tidy myself up after my immersion in the sea.
Perhaps I looked a little heroic—perhaps she remembered that all had been done in her cause, and this glorified me in her eyes.
It was just as well.
Surely, we had little time to think of these things, when freedom must be our first aim.
Robbins appeared to look at it in a different light; I imagined he felt sorry to see so fair a creature in the arms of so disreputable a wretch as I must have appeared.
At any rate, he came in and locked the door from the inside.
“Ah! madam, have pity on him, and give him half a chance to wash up, to brush his hair and look like himself. Twenty-four hours in a dungeon after that swim in the sea—do you wonder he appears like a tramp?” he said.
Then I grew ashamed myself, and realized how very tough my appearance must be.