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Updated: June 4, 2025
Seton spoke reluctantly. "Then do this," said Merefleet. "Go to her and ask her if she will see me alone. If she says 'No, I give you my word that I will leave this place and trouble neither of you any further." Seton seemed to hesitate, but Merefleet was sure of his acquiescence. After a pause of several seconds he fulfilled his expectations and went. Merefleet sat down again and waited.
Presently she turned her face up to his. "The Gate of Heaven," she said in a whisper. "Isn't it fine?" He did not speak. She lifted a hand that felt like an icicle and slipped it into his. "I guess we shall do this journey together, Big Bear," she said. "I'm real sorry I made you come if you didn't want to." "You needn't be sorry," said Merefleet, with a huskiness he could not have accounted for.
"So you may," said Merefleet quietly. "But I do not see that that involves my departure." Seton struck the balustrade of the terrace with an impatient hand. "Can't you understand?" he said rather thickly. "How else can I put it?" "I have no desire to pry into your affairs, Heaven knows," Merefleet said, "but this I will say.
Merefleet gazed upon the wonder before him and asked himself one breathless question: "Is that a woman?" And the answer seemed to spring from the very depth of his being: "No! A goddess!" It was the most gloriously perfect picture of beauty he had ever looked upon. The searchlight flashed on and the hotel garden was left in darkness.
A chill sense of loss swept down upon Merefleet, but the impression did not last. He threw away his cigar with an impetuosity oddly out of keeping with his somewhat rugged and unimpressionable nature. A hot desire to see that face again at close quarters possessed him the face of the loveliest woman he had ever beheld. He reached the hotel and sat down in the vestibule.
And Mab ended in a choked whisper with an appealing hand against his breast. "Just go right away!" she said. "Take up your life where it was before you met me! Will you, dear? It will make it easier for me if you will." A dead silence followed the low words. Then, moved by a marvellous influence which worked upon him irresistibly, Merefleet stooped and put the slight hand to his lips.
It struck Merefleet that he uttered the words with some force, almost with the deliberate intention of conveying a warning; and, being the last man in the world to attempt to fathom the wholly irrelevant affairs of his neighbour, he dropped into silence and began to smoke. Seton sat motionless for some time.
Looking upwards as he was, with fascinated eyes, following the slanting line of light, Merefleet saw a sight which was destined to live in his memory for all the rest of his life, strive as he might to rid himself of it. As in a dream-picture he saw the figure of a girl standing on the steps of the terrace in front of the hotel. The searchlight discovered her and lingered upon her.
His gesture said as much. But she was not discouraged. "I guess I'll try, anyhow," she said with brisk determination. "You don't like American women, Mr. Merefleet." "Depends," said Merefleet. And she laughed gaily. They were drifting in long sweeps towards the south. Imperceptibly also the distance was widening between the boat and the shore. The wind was veering to the west. "My!
How are you this morning?" "Fresh as paint," she returned. "But I'm just dying to get on the water. And Bert has gone off somewhere by himself. I guess you'll help me, Big Bear. Won't you?" Merefleet glanced from the sea to the sun. "There's a change coming," he said. "I will go with you with pleasure. But I think it would be advisable to wait till the afternoon as usual.
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