"And the hairpins and the handkerchiefs," added Julius, laughing, as he stooped to get the bag out of the stern-sheets. "Please tell me the dream."
Leonora took a handkerchief and wet it from the bottle of cologne water. Then she began to dab it on her face.
"I dreamed that you"--dab--"picked me up in your arms and"--dab, dab--"carried me down the stairs,"--dab, dab, dab,--"and just as you were putting me into the"--dab--"into the boat, you dropped me into the sea." A furious succession of dabs, then more cologne water and another handkerchief.
"But you said something about that last night. You made me put you down on the rocks, because you said you had dreamed I dropped you. Was that another dream?"
Julius was watching her operations with a half-amused interest.
"Yes," said she, drying her face, "I dreamed it all over again, just now."
"But when did you dream it first, dear? Yesterday?"
"Oh no! Ever so long ago,--ages ago." She looked down at the flower she had put in her dress at the last minute. It was still fresh, and she arranged it a little.
"Oh yes,--that is--before"--she blushed again.
"When was it?" he asked, amused and delighted.
"It was before that evening," she said at last, "when you met me in the church. How long ago is that?"
"About ten years, I should think," said Julius gravely. It seemed an endless time.
"Is it not strange?--and then, that I should dream it all again--it is so funny. Why should you have dropped me? It would have been so easy to carry me into the boat, and yet you seemed to stumble on purpose, and we both fell in and were drowned. Is it not very odd?"
She seemed to have settled herself now, for the remainder of the journey; the sun had risen quickly over the land while they were talking, and she put up a parasol which lay on the opposite seat. She did it unconsciously, not realising that she had not brought one with her, but when she held it up, she looked at the handle and saw that it was not one of her own. Then she remembered.
"Did you get it for me?" she asked, smiling.
"Yes," said Julius; "I knew you would want it, so I sent out for it last night."
"A puggia!" shouted one of the men from behind the sail.
Julius put the helm up accordingly, and, as the boat fell off a little, a big fishing smack ran across her bows.