She stood still for a moment or two, looking at the waves tumbling at her feet; the man waited.
"Yes," she replied at last; and then turned swiftly to him, pouring out a very flood of words upon him. "I love him with all my heart and soul; there's no other man in all the world like him; he's my life—my everything. And just for that reason, and just because of what he has done, I can never have anything to do with him. In spite of all I said to him, I know only too well why he lavished all that money on me; I know that he never meant to wound me, or to shame me in the eyes of other people. That wasn't his fault; it was the fault of those who traded upon his generosity. If I have been shamed and hurt—how much more has he been shamed and hurt because of me. There"—she laughed quickly, and brushed the tears from her eyes—"that's the end of it—and that's the last time I shall ever speak of it. It's good to tell a secret sometimes—and I've told mine to the best friend ever a poor unhappy girl had. I won't ask if you're going to keep my secret—because that would be insulting you, and would show that I didn't know what a good friend I've got. And you won't ever speak of this again to me?"
He did not answer in words; he took her hand for a moment, and gripped it; when presently they moved off towards the others he still held that hand as she walked beside him. Only when they came in sight of those who waited for them did he drop the hand, and resume his ordinary attitude of walking with his own clasped behind his back.
"It's an island," said Simon Quarle. "We climbed up the rocks, and there's nothing but the sea beyond. Therefore we must make the best of it."
"Someone ought to be appointed to look after the provisions and things generally—a sort of temporary ruler," said Daniel Meggison. "As perhaps the oldest here I'm quite ready to take the post. It requires dignity—and all that sort of thing."
"I think we can leave the question of the provisions to Pringle," said Gilbert, "with the understanding that he is to be careful."
"Certainly, sir; most happy, sir," responded Pringle. "Sparing in all things, sir—and stimulants to be kept for medicinal purposes," he added.
"What the devil's the man winking at me for?" demanded Daniel Meggison fiercely as he turned away.
As the morning advanced the day grew very hot. There was no protection from the sun whatever on that side of the island, and it was presently arranged that one of the spare sails in the boat should be rigged up to form a species of shelter. There the women sat—a little removed from each other, so far as the Ewart-Cranes and Mrs. Stocker were concerned—and dozed at intervals; Bessie seemed to take her place naturally enough with Simon Quarle and Gilbert in the actual work that lay before them if they were to make any attempt to live at all.
Curiously enough, perhaps the most active of them all was that meek little man, Edward Stocker. Relieved for the first time in his married life from the thraldom of Mrs. Stocker, he was like a boy playing some great game; he entered into it with the zest of a child. He it was who, setting out to make some further exploration of the island, and being lost for an hour or so, was presently observed racing towards them with wildly waving arms, shouting something wholly unintelligible as he ran. Mr. Daniel Meggison seeing him, promptly got behind Simon Quarle, interposing that gentleman between himself and coming danger.