Robert had splashed through the flood half an hour before, but it had risen rapidly since then.

He had to apply his mind to the practical task of finding a way to the other side.
'You must climb the bank,' he said, 'and get through into the field.' She assented mutely.

He went first, drew her up the bank, forced his way through the loosely growing hedge himself, and holding back some young hazel saplings and breaking others, made an opening for her through which she scrambled with bent head; then, stretching out his hand to her, he made her submit to be helped down the steep bank on the other side.

Her straight young figure was just above him, her breath almost on his cheek.
'You talk of baseness and treason,' he began, passionately, conscious of a hundred wild impulses, as perforce she leant her light weight upon his arm.
'Life is not so simple.

It is so easy to sacrifice others with one's self, to slay all claims in honor of one, instead of knitting the new ones to the old.