And presently she saw
the boat coming round, and saw by its head that it was for the Creux.
She turned and sped across by the same way as yesterday, and Julie
followed her at a safe distance. And it seemed to Nance, as she hurried
through the familiar hedge-gaps and lanes and across the headlands, that
the world had lost its brightness, and that life was desperately hard
and trying.
On Derrible Head there might be a chance of seeing. She ran up to the
highest point by the old cannon, just as the boat was coming in under La
Conchee.
And--oh, mon Dieu! mon Dieu! yes--there, in the bows, lay the body of a
man!--and the tears she had kept back all day broke out now in a fury of
weeping. She could hardly see, but she ran on, falling at times and
bruising herself, staggering to her feet again, stumbling blindly
through a mist of tears.
The boat was drawn up by the time she got there, and a curious crowd
surrounded it. She pushed through. She must see.
And then the weight fell off her heart, and it was all she could do to
keep from screaming. For this poor thing, whatever it was, was not
Stephen Gard and never had been.
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