"He'll be all right," K. replied. "The little beggar can take care of
himself, if only--"
"If only what?"
"If only he isn't too friendly. He's apt to crawl into the pockets of any
one who happens around."
She was alarmed at that. To make up for his indiscretion, K. suggested a
descent to the river. She accepted eagerly, and he helped her down. That
was another memory that outlasted the day--her small warm hand in his; the
time she slipped and he caught her; the pain in her eyes at one of his
thoughtless remarks.
"I'm going to be pretty lonely," he said, when she had paused in the
descent and was taking a stone out of her low shoe. "Reginald gone, and you
going! I shall hate to come home at night." And then, seeing her wince:
"I've been whining all day. For Heaven's sake, don't look like that. If
there's one sort of man I detest more than another, it's a man who is sorry
for himself. Do you suppose your mother would object if we stayed, out
here at the hotel for supper? I've ordered a moon, orange-yellow and extra
size."
"I should hate to have anything ordered and wasted."
"Then we'll stay."
"It's fearfully extravagant."
"I'll be thrifty as to moons while you are in the hospital."
So it was settled. And, as it happened, Sidney had to stay, anyhow. For,
having perched herself out in the river on a sugar-loaf rock, she slid,
slowly but with a dreadful inevitability, into the water. K. happened to
be looking in another direction. So it occurred that at one moment, Sidney
sat on a rock, fluffy white from head to feet, entrancingly pretty, and
knowing it, and the next she was standing neck deep in water, much too
startled to scream, and trying to be dignified under the rather trying
circumstances. K. had not looked around. The splash had been a gentle
one.
"If you will be good enough," said Sidney, with her chin well up, "to give
me your hand or a pole or something--because if the river rises an inch I
shall drown."
To his undying credit, K. Le Moyne did not laugh when he turned and saw
her. He went out on the sugar-loaf rock, and lifted her bodily up its
slippery sides. He had prodigious strength, in spite of his leanness.
"Well!" said Sidney, when they were both on the rock, carefully balanced.
"Are you cold?"