"It seems so unjust--so terribly _unfair_.... That all this could come from one little puff of wind!... He had gotten out of the boat. He was swimming away. And then there came one little gust. I had tied the sail, you see. He had frightened me. And now, after all these months.... But of course I never thought--I never dreamed of--of--"
"I know; I understand. No one dreamed it. You must keep sure of that," said Vivian, in his natural voice. "I knew Dal very well indeed, you know; and I felt certain that he was--safe from this. You--you mustn't think of it as something that could have been foreseen...."
He was looking down at her lowered face closely as he spoke; and went on without pause:
"You see--what upset him so was beyond your control or mine. I've heard nothing since the telegram last night. But--you may remember that he spoke of a girl in his letter, whose opinion he seemed to value. It must be that when he saw her again, she was very hard on him--so hard that he lost his grip for a moment. I can't account for it in any other way. There is another thing, too.... Do you think it's a little close in here, perhaps? May I open a window?"
She assented without speech, and he walked away with the step of his disability to the long windows. Into the dim great room stole the breath of the May morning, sweet with the fragrance of the balcony flowers.
"There was one thing I wanted particularly to tell you. I sent Dal a message--a telegram--on Monday night...."
"Not breaking your confidence, of course--just telling him, in a general way, to keep his courage up, that I--I thought good news was on the way.... It was without authority. I realized that. And yet I felt so sure that--when you had had a little time to think--that would be what you would wish. In fact, of course I knew it...."
Their eyes met, almost for the first time, and a sudden constraint fell upon the girl.
"But I don't see," she said, with some difficulty--"if you telegraphed him that--on Monday--I don't understand--"
"The telegram went astray. I went to the office here last night and had them find out. It should have reached Weymouth the first thing yesterday morning. It didn't arrive till about three in the afternoon. But even then.... You see, he could hardly have expected a reply to his letter till Wednesday. That's to-day--"