ld never have had the strength to go away."
She lifted her eyes to his. Her voice fell to a half whisper. "You
understood, on the island?... What I meant?"

"Yes."

"But you didn't take me. I wonder. Ban, if it hadn't been for the light
flashing in our eyes and giving us hope...?"

"How can I tell? I was dazed with the amazement and the glory of it--of
you. But--yes. My God, yes! And then? Afterward?"

"Could there have been any afterward?" she questioned dreamily. "Would
we not just have waited for the river to sweep us up and carry us away?
What other ending could there have been, so fitting?"

"Anyway," he said with a sudden savage jealousy, "whatever happened you
would not have gone away to marry Eyre."

"Should I not? I'm by no means sure. You don't understand much of me, my
poor Ban."

"How could you!" he burst out. "Would that have been--"

"Oh, I should have told him, of course. I'd have said, 'Del, there's
been another man, a lover.' One could say those things to him."

"Would he have married you?"

"You wouldn't, would you?" she smiled. "All or nothing, Ban, for you.
About Del, I don't know." She shrugged dainty shoulders. "I shouldn't
have much cared."

"And would you have come back to me, Io?"

"Do you want me to say 'Yes'? You do want me to say' Yes,' don't you, my
dear? How can I tell?... Sooner or later, I suppose. Fate. The
irresistible current. I am here now."

"Io." He leaned to her across the little table, his somber regard
holding hers. "Why did you tell Camilla Van Arsdale that you would never
divorce Eyre?"

"Because it's true."

"But why tell her? So that it should come back to me?"

She answered him straight and fearlessly. "Yes. I thought it would be
easier for you to hear from her."

"Did you?" He sat staring past her at visions. It was not within
Banneker's code, his sense of fair play in the game, to betray to Io his
wonderment (shared by most of her own set) that she should have endured
the affront of Del Eyre's openly flagitious life, even though she had
herself implied some knowledge of it in her assumption that a divorce
could be procured. However, Io met his reticence with characteristic
candor.

"Of course I know about Del. We have a perfect understanding. He's
agreed to maintain the outward decencies, from now on. I don't consider
that I've the right to ask more. You see, I shouldn't have married him
... even though he understood that I wasn't really in love wit