The rest had strayed away in pairs and
groups, out of hearing if not out of sight. The unconscious figure
seemed clothed in an atmosphere of ethereal sweetness, and Edward
caught himself wondering whether the root of an affection, whose life
is years long, is ever removed from the heart, unless the heart is
removed with it. He began seriously to doubt, not his constancy to
Wanda, but his inconstancy to Helene. Suddenly she opened her eyes and
caught his glance. He withdrew it at once, and in the embarrassment of
the moment made some inane remark upon the beauty of the day. Helene
rose with deliberation, put one white hand to the well-brushed head,
trim and shining as a raven's wing, and with the utmost tranquillity
answered "yes." Certainly she had the most irritating way in the world
of pronouncing the words which usually sound sweetest from a woman's
lips. He did not wait to continue a conversation so unpropitiously
begun, but went off on a lonely exploring tramp along the shore.
Late in the afternoon as he was returning, he noticed a nondescript
figure sitting solitary on the bank, which, as he approached resolved
itself into the superb outline of his Indian love.
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