For she and the clouds and the breezes were one,
And the hills and the sea had conspired with the sun
To charm and bewilder all men with the grace
They combined and conferred on her wonderful face.
The sea lapped around the boat, the green light on the waves grew somehow less intense, in the silence the first of the stars came out, and somehow the time in which he had seen Sheila in these rare and magical colors seemed to become more and more remote:
An angel in passing looked downward and smiled,
And carried to heaven the fame of the child;
And then what the waves and the sky and the sun
And the tremulous breath of the hills had begun
Required but one touch. To finish the whole,
God loved her and gave her a beautiful soul.
And what had he done with this rare treasure intrusted to him? His companions, jesting among themselves, had said that he had committed a murder; in his own heart there was something at this moment of a murderer’s remorse.
Johnny Eyre uttered a short cry. Lavender looked ahead, and saw that some black object was disappearing among the waves.
“What a fright I got!” Eyre said, with a laugh. “I never saw the fellow come near, and he came up just below the bowsprit. He came keeling over as quiet as a mouse. I say, Lavender, I think we might as well cut it now; my eyes are quite bewildered with the light on the water. I couldn’t make out a kraken if it was coming across our bows.”
“Don’t be in a hurry, Johnny. We’ll put her out a bit, and then let her drift back. I want to tell you a story.”
“Oh, all right,” he said; and so they put her head around and soon she was lying over before the breeze, and slowly drawing away from those outlines of the coast which showed them where Tarbert harbor cut into the land. And then once more they let her drift, and young Eyre took a nip of whisky and settled himself so as to hear Lavender’s story, whatever it might be.
“You knew I was married?”
“Yes.”