Feminist fiction; Historical fiction; Southern States -- Fiction; Women -- Southern States -- Fiction; Women authors -- Fiction
Off in the east the stars were paling, there was coming a vague and
mournful grey. The boat was sinking. The two men had torn away the
thwarts and with a piece of rope lashed them together. It would be
little more than a straw to cling to, in the turbulent wide ocean,
miles from land. All were cold and numbed with the wind and the rain
and the sea.
Purple streaks came into the east, a chill and solemn lift to all the
sea and air and the roofless ether. Hagar and Fay looked at the violet
light, at the extreme and ghostly calm of the fields of dawn. "It is
coming now," said Fay, and put his arm around her. The boat sank.
The three, clinging to the frail raft they had provided, were swung
from wave to wave beneath the glowing dawn.... The wind was stilled
now, the water, under the rising sun, smoothed itself out. They
drifted, drifted; and now the sun was an hour high.... "Look! look!"
cried the Breton, and they looked and saw a red sail coming toward
them.
A day or two later Hagar and Fay met at the gate of the curé's widow,
and climbing through the grey town came out upon the heath above. It
was a high, clear afternoon, with a marvellous blue sky. They walked
until they came to a circle of stones, raised there in the immemorial,
dark past. When they had wandered among them for a while, they rested,
leaning against the greatest menhir, looking out over the grey-green,
far-stretching heath to a line of sapphire sea. "It grows like a
dream," said Hagar. "Death, life--life, death.... I think we are
growing into something that transcends both ... as we have known both."
"Hagar, do you love me?"
"Yes, I love you.... It's a quiet love, but it's deep."
They sat down in the warm grass by the huge stone, and now they talked
and now they were silent and content. Little by little they laid their
plans.
"Let us go to London. I will go to Roger Michael's. We will marry
quietly there."
"Lily and Robert will want to come from Scotland."
"Well, we'll let them." Hagar laughed, a musical, sweet laugh. "Thomson
is in London with Mr. Greer. Dear old Thomson! I think he'll have to
come."
"Couldn't we have," said Fay, "a month in some old, green, still,
English country place?"
"With roses to the eaves and a sunken lane to wander in and at night a
cricket chirping on the hearth.... We'll try."
"And in October sail for home."
"And in October sail for home."
She looked at him with eyes that smiled and yet were grave. "You're
aware that you're marrying a working-woman, who intends to continue to
work?"
"I'm aware."
Her candid eyes continued to meet his. "I wish a child. While it needs
me and when it needs me, I shall be there."
His hand closed over hers. "Is it as though I did not know that--"
She kissed him on the lips. "And you're aware that I shall work on
through life for the fairer social order? And that, generally speaking,
the Woman Movement has me for keeps?"
"I'm aware. I'm going to help you."
"South America--"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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