He lifted his head from his
arms. She was there in the water below him, clinging to the raft with
one hand.
"I just came back to tell you something," she said. "I thought you
ought to know it before things went any farther."
He thought, "Good God! she's in love with some one else!" and the
horror of the idea made him look at her severely.
"I'm not perhaps just as I seem--I mean my views are rather liberal.
In fact"--she brought it out with an effort--"I'm almost a socialist."
The relief was so great that Ben couldn't speak. He bent his head and
kissed the hand that had tempted him a few hours before.
She did not resent his action. Her special technique in such matters
was to pretend that such little incidents hardly came into the realm
of her consciousness. She said, "At two-fifteen, then," and swam away
for good.
Later in the day a gentleman who owned both a bathing house and a
bathing suit on Bailey's beach was showing the latter possession to a
group of friends.
"No one can tell me that Newport isn't damp," he said. "I haven't been
in bathing for twenty-four hours, and yet I can actually wring the
water out of my suit."
CHAPTER II
That same morning, about ten o'clock, Mr. William Cord was shut up in
the study of his house--shut up, that is, as far as entrance from the
rest of the house was concerned, but very open as to windows looking
out across the grass to the sea.
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