ed, and vanished, till, as a small waxen object, she saw him
emerge from the nook that had screened him, cross the white fringe of
foam, and walk into the undulating mass of blue. Once in the water he
seemed less inclined to hurry than before; he remained a long time; and,
unable either to appreciate his skill or criticize his want of it at that
distance, she withdrew her eyes from the spot, and gazed at the still
outline of St. Michael's--now beautifully toned in grey.

Her anxiety for the hour of departure, and to cope at once with the
approaching incidents that she would have to manipulate as best she
could, sent her into a reverie. It was now Tuesday; she would reach home
in the evening--a very late time they would say; but, as the delay was a
pure accident, they would deem her marriage to Mr. Heddegan to-morrow
still practicable. Then Charles would have to be produced from the
background. It was a terrible undertaking to think of, and she almost
regretted her temerity in wedding so hastily that morning. The rage of
her father would be so crushing; the reproaches of her mother so bitter;
and perhaps Charles would answer hotly, and perhaps cause estrangement
till death. There had obviously been no alarm about her at St. Maria's,
or somebody would have sailed across to inquire for her. She had, in a
letter written at the beginning of the week, spoken of the hour at which
she intended to leave her country schoolhouse; and from this her friends
had probably perceived that by such timing she would run a risk of losing
the Saturday boat. She had missed it, and as a consequence sat here on
the shore as Mrs. Charles Stow.

This brought her to the present, and she turned from the outline of St.
Michael's Mount to look about for her husband's form. He was, as far as
she could discover, no longer in the sea. Then he was dressing. By
moving a few steps she could see where his clothes lay. But Charles was
not beside them.

Baptista looked back again at the water in bewilderment, as if her senses
were the victim of some sleight of hand. Not a speck or spot resembling
a man's head or face showed anywhere. By this time she was alarmed, and
her alarm intensified when she perceived a little beyond the scene of her
husband's bathing a small area of water, the quality of whose surface
differed from that of the surrounding expanse as the coarse vegetation of
some foul patch in a mead differs from the fine green of the rem