I didn't think you'd want to get those little white shoes of yours all wet.

So I took the liberty of carrying you.

My own shoes, and all the rest of me, are drenched beyond cure anyhow.

So another bit of immersion didn't do me any harm." He spoke in a careless, matter-of-fact manner, and as he talked he was leading the way up the short beach, toward the northernmost edge of the mangrove swamp.

Claire could not well take further offence at a service which apparently had been rendered to her out of the merest common politeness.