? Ship all sloppy with the waves? And you dancing
about to keep your feet?"

"It's _always_ rough weather," gloried Toby. "Sea goin' all the time.
But she's a daisy to keep steady. Wouldn't hardly notice you was
moving."

"_I'm_ sure!" cried Sally, ironically. "And you and the captain chatting
together in the cabin, and all."

"No." Toby was condescending under chaff. "But we're quite.... Skipper,
he's called. You don't call him captain. He's just like me. He's no
better; only he...."

"Only he knows how to sail a boat," mocked Sally.

"So do I. I sailed her up the river." He was recklessly and untruthfully
boastful, as instinct told her.

"_I_ should think so." Sally's voice was so jeering that it laughed his
pretensions to nothing at all. "And then you woke up."

Toby became expostulatory. But all the time Sally was not listening. She
was not thinking of his words at all; but was only conscious of the warm
glow running through her at his nearness and his strong clasp. Every now
and then she prompted him to kiss her; and when Toby kissed her she
felt as though she did not know what unhappiness was. He was so strong,
and his chin so firm and rough; and he had such an air of the salt sea
about him, that she was like a baby at the breast. She loved him. No
thought of Gaga came. Only the moment's delight absorbed them both.

Presently they began to walk along the dark path, Toby's arm still
pressing Sally to his side, and his head every now and then almost
savagely down against her hair. The small hat she had worn was taken
off, and was carried, swinging. Sally was so small and so comparatively
weak beside Toby's burly strength that she was all the time relishing
his power entirely to subdue her; and her wits were so quick that she
never had a moment's hesitation as to the right way to tease him. She
was without any least sensation of unhappiness. She had never been so
glad of Toby since their first exulting days of passion, and her whole
nature was bubbling and trembling towards him in the old way, as if they
had come together again after some long dreadful estrangement.

And then Sally remembered Gaga. She had been laughing so much in herself
at this long evening of freedom, that the recollection was like ice to
her heart. It was all a mockery, a fantasy; and Toby was no more hers.
She was separated from him for ever, and the more closely she was
embraced by him the less she felt herself free to belong to him.