Our eyes encountered, and I verily believe our hearts encountered at the same moment.

This I know for certain, we forgot our breeding as lady and gentleman: we looked at each other in barbarous silence.
I was the first to recover myself.

What did I say to him?
I said something about my not being hurt, and then something more, urging him to run back and try if he might not yet recover the fish.
He went back unwillingly.

He returned to me--of course without the fish.
Knowing how bitterly disappointed my uncle would have been in his place, I apologized very earnestly.

In my eagerness to make atonement, I even offered to show him a spot where he might try again, lower down the stream.
He would not hear of it; he entreated me to go home and change my wet dress.