half way she turned her head
for the first time. Keeping five feet or so behind, Captain Anthony was
following her with an air of extreme interest. Interest or eagerness. At
any rate she caught an expression on his face which frightened her. But
not enough to make her run. And indeed it would have had to be something
incredibly awful to scare into a run a girl who had come to the end of
her courage to live.

As if encouraged by this glance over the shoulder Captain Anthony came up
boldly, and now that he was by her side, she felt his nearness
intimately, like a touch. She tried to disregard this sensation. But
she was not angry with him now. It wasn't worth while. She was thankful
that he had the sense not to ask questions as to this crying. Of course
he didn't ask because he didn't care. No one in the world cared for her,
neither those who pretended nor yet those who did not pretend. She
preferred the latter.

Captain Anthony opened for her a gate into another field; when they got
through he kept walking abreast, elbow to elbow almost. His voice
growled pleasantly in her very ear. Staying in this dull place was
enough to give anyone the blues. His sister scribbled all day. It was
positively unkind. He alluded to his nieces as rude, selfish monkeys,
without either feelings or manners. And he went on to talk about his
ship being laid up for a month and dismantled for repairs. The worst was
that on arriving in London he found he couldn't get the rooms he was used
to, where they made him as comfortable as such a confirmed sea-dog as
himself could be anywhere on shore.

In the effort to subdue by dint of talking and to keep in check the
mysterious, the profound attraction he felt already for that delicate
being of flesh and blood, with pale cheeks, with darkened eyelids and
eyes scalded with hot tears, he went on speaking of himself as a
confirmed enemy of life on shore--a perfect terror to a simple man, what
with the fads and proprieties and the ceremonies and affectations. He
hated all that. He wasn't fit for it. There was no rest and peace and
security but on the sea.

This gave one a view of Captain Anthony as a hermit withdrawn from a
wicked world. It was amusingly unexpected to me and nothing more. But
it must have appealed straight to that bruised and battered young soul.
Still shrinking from his nearness she had ended by listening to him with
avidity. His deep murmuring voice soothed her