They stood and looked at each other in silence for a moment; but what a
silence!
It almost seemed to Nell as if it were not he himself who stood before
her, but just a vision of her imagination, called up by the intensity of
her thoughts of him. The color came and went in her face, leaving it, at
last, pale and startled. And he, too, stood, as incapable of speech as
any of the shy and bashful young fishermen on the quay; he, the man of
the world, who had faced so many "situations" with women--women of the
world armed with the weapons of experience, and the "higher culture." At
that moment, intense as it was, the strength of the emotion which swept
over him and mastered him, amazed him.
He knew, now that he was face to face with her, how he had missed this
girl, how keen and intolerable had been his longing for her.
He remembered to hold out his hand. Had he done so yet? For the life of
him, he could not have told. The sight of the sweet face had cast a
spell over him, and he did not know whether he was standing or sitting.
As she put her small hand in his, Nell recovered something of her
self-possession; but not all, for her heart was beating furiously, her
bosom heaving, and she was in agony lest he should see the mist of dew
which seemed to cover her eyes.
"I'm afraid I startled you," he said.
Nell smiled faintly, and drew her hand away--for he had held it half
unconsciously.
"I think you did--a little," she admitted. "You see, I--we did not
expect you. And"--she laughed the laugh he had heard in his dreams,
though it had not always been so tremulous, so like the flutelike quaver
of this laugh--"and even now I am not quite sure it is you."
"It is I--believe me," he said. "It is the same bad penny come back."
Then it flashed upon him he must give some reason for his return.
Incredible as it may seem, he was not prepared with one. He had made up
his mind to come; he would have gone through fire and water to get back
to Shorne Mills, but he had quite forgotten that some excuse would be
necessary.
But she did not seem to see the necessity.
"Are you quite well now?" she asked, just glancing up at him.
"Quite," he said; "perfectly well."