Why should a girl call him ?--unless she--unless--unless-- Perplexed, her grave eyes fixed on the sea where now the white canoe pitched nearer, she dropped both hands to the sand--those once wonderfully white hands, now creamed with sun tan; and her arms, too, were tinted from shoulder to finger-tip.

Then she straightened her legs, crossed her feet, and leaned a trifle forward, balancing her body on both palms flat on the sand.

The sun beat down on her; she loosened her hair to dry it, and as she shook her delicate head the superb red-gold mass came tumbling about her face and shoulders.

Under its glimmering splendour, and through it, she stared seaward out of wide, preoccupied eyes; and in her breast, stirring uneasily, a pulse, intermittent yet dully importunate, persisted.
The canoe, drifting toward the surf, was close in, now.

Gerald rose and dived; Gladys, steadying herself by a slim hand on Selwyn's shoulder, stood up on the bow, ready to plunge clear when the canoe capsized.
How wonderfully pretty she was, balanced there, her hand on his shoulder, ready for a leap, lest the heavy canoe, rolling over in the froth, strike her under the smother of foam and water.