The Trespasser

The moment passed, and her thoughts hurried forward in confusion.

'It is good,' said Helena; 'it is very good.' She looked again, and saw

the waves like a line of children racing hand in hand, the sunlight

pursuing, catching hold of them from behind, as they ran wildly till

they fell, caught, with the sunshine dancing upon them like a white dog.

'It is really wonderful here!' said she; but the moment had gone, she

could not see again the grand burning of God among the waves. After a

while she turned away.

As she stood dabbling her bathing-dress in a pool, Siegmund came over

the beach to her.

'You are not gone, then?' he said.

'Siegmund!' she exclaimed, looking up at him with radiant eyes, as if it

could not be possible that he had joined her in this rare place. His

face was glowing with the sun's inflaming, but Helena did not notice

that his eyes were full of misery.

'I, actually,' he said, smiling.

'I did not expect you,' she said, still looking at him in radiant

wonder. 'I could easier have expected'--she hesitated, struggled, and

continued--'Eros walking by the sea. But you are like him,' she said,

looking radiantly up into Siegmund's face. 'Isn't it beautiful this

morning?' she added.

Siegmund endured her wide, glad look for a moment, then he stooped and

kissed her. He remained moving his hand in the pool, ashamed, and full

of contradiction. He was at the bitter point of farewell; could see,

beyond the glamour around him, the ugly building of his real life.

'Isn't the sea wonderful this morning?' asked Helena, as she wrung the

water from her costume.

'It is very fine,' he answered. He refrained from saying what his heart

said: 'It is my last morning; it is not yours. It is my last morning,

and the sea is enjoying the joke, and you are full of delight.' 'Yes,' said Siegmund, 'the morning is perfect.' 'It is,' assented Helena warmly. 'Have you noticed the waves? They are

like a line of children chased by a white dog.' 'Ay!' said Siegmund.

'Didn't you have a good time?' she asked, touching with her finger-tips

the nape of his neck as he stooped beside her.

'I swam to my little bay again,' he replied.

'Did you?' she exclaimed, pleased.

She sat down by the pool, in which she washed her feet free from sand,

holding them to Siegmund to dry.

'I am very hungry,' she said.

'And I,' he agreed.