'
"`Oh, he may fall into the water!' exclaimed Eunice, in alarm.
"`He's not fool enough to do that,' said Shelldrake. `His head is
a little light, that's all. The air will cool him down presently.'
But she arose and followed him, not satisfied with this assurance.
Miss Ringtop sat rigidly still. She would have received with
composure the news of his drowning.
"As Eunice's white dress disappeared among the cedars crowning the
shore, I sprang up and ran after her. I knew that Abel was not
intoxicated, but simply excited, and I had no fear on his account:
I obeyed an involuntary impulse. On approaching the water, I
heard their voices--hers in friendly persuasion, his in sentimental
entreaty,--then the sound of oars in the row-locks. Looking out
from the last clump of cedars, I saw them seated in the boat,
Eunice at the stern, while Abel, facing her, just dipped an oar now
and then to keep from drifting with the tide. She had found him
already in the boat, which was loosely chained to a stone.
Stepping on one of the forward thwarts in her eagerness to persuade
him to return, he sprang past her, jerked away the chain, and
pushed off before she could escape.
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