"I'll not swamp you."This was her first remark.Her next was when,after no incautious haste,I had hauled her in over the stern,John working round to the bow for the sake of balance:"I was not dressed for swimming."Very quietly did Hortense speak;very coolly,very evenly;no fainting--and no flippancy;she was too game for either.
After this,whatever emotions she had felt,or was feeling,she showed none of them,unless it was by her complete silence.John's coming into the boat we managed with sufficient dexterity;aided by the horrified Charley,who now arrived personally in the other boat,and was for taking all three of us into that.But this was altogether unnecessary;he was made to understand that such transferences as it would occasion were superfluous,and so one of his men stepped into our boat to help me to row back against the current;and for this I was not unthankful.
Our return took,it appeared to me,a much longer time than everything else which had happened.When I looked over my shoulder at the Hermana,she seemed an incredible distance off,and when I looked again,she had grown so very little nearer that I abandoned this fruitless proceeding.
Charley's boat had gone ahead to announce the good news to General Rieppe as soon as possible.But if our return was long to me,to Hortense it was not so.She sat beside her lover in the stern,and I knew that he was more to her than ever:it was her spirit also that wanted him now.Poor Kitty's words of prophecy had come perversely true:"Something will happen,and that boy'll be conspicuous."Well,it had happened with a vengeance,and all wrong for Kitty,and all wrong for me!Then Iremembered Charley,last of all.My doubt as to what he would have done,had he been on deck,was settled later by learning from his own lips that he did not know how to swim.
Yes,the sentimental world (and by that I mean the immense and mournful preponderance of fools,and not the few of true sentiment)would soon be exclaiming:"How romantic!She found her heart!She had a glimpse of Death's angel,and in that light saw her life's true happiness!"But Ishould say nothing like that,nor would Miss Josephine St.Michael,if Iread that lady at all right.She didn't know what I did about Hortense.
She hadn't overheard Sophistication confessing amorous curiosity about Innocence;but the old Kings Port lady's sound instinct would tell her that a souse in the water wasn't likely to be enough to wash away the seasoning of a lifetime;and she would wait,as I should,for the day when Hortense,having had her taste of John's innocence,and having grown used to the souse in the water,would wax restless for the Replacers,for excitement,for complexity,for the prismatic life.Then it might interest her to corrupt John;but if she couldn't,where would her occupation be,and how were they going to pull through?
