"I don't like to forget what must be remembered." If Ethan were conscious that the mental apparition of the old woman with her silent, but effectual, "I forbid the banns"--if he were quite conscious that her coming brought behind the dash of disillusionment a sense, too, of reprieve, he forbore to say as much. It was enough that the first wearer of the sunken ring had made not only the difference to those two of being summoned out of the infinite, but the difference of holding them back from the infinite as well. The compact they had made was null and void as long as their common ancestress lived. Her character and influence built high an impregnable barrier between her descendants and this thing she would despise, and which they knew would give her her first taste of the cup of humiliation. "It cannot be while she is in the world," said Ethan. With unconscious cruelty the other answered: "But she is very, very old, and we are young." A sudden stifled cry rose apparently out of the bushes and tall water-weeds just to their left. Ethan sprang up. "It's only those boys," said Val, as a chorus of confused exclamations came from beyond the Gray Pool. "No, it was nearer. Didn't you hear a splash?" The screams grew more distinct. "One of 'em's in the water," he said. "Hallo, there!" He paddled out from the overshadowing tree. "Ethan!" Val held out her hands in a sudden agony of fear. "It's horribly deep here, and there's a current! It's the most dangerous place on the river!" "Yes. Bad place for a little chap. Where did he go down?" he shouted. "It was a lady. Her boat's just behind you." Ethan turned, and saw dimly, a few yards off, Mr. Otway grasping the side of a row-boat, and looking over into the water in a pitiable paralysis of horror. "Where? where?" Ethan called, scanning the river on all sides. Something vague rose up a few yards below the boats, and moved quickly down the current. Ethan was overboard in an instant, striking out in the direction of the dark object. Val caught up the oars and followed in the boat. It was all over in a few minutes. Ethan had laid hold on the unconscious girl, and swam with her to the bank. Val rowed across, and Ethan and she, between them, dragged Julia into the boat. The boys, who had followed, called back to Mr. Otway that the lady was saved. When the father got up with them, Julia was reviving. "You'd better get into their boat," said Ethan to Val; "the old man's not fit to go alone down-stream, you know. You won't mind?" "No," said Val; "but let us keep close together." "Of course." "She _would_ come," Mr. Otway kept saying, helplessly. "I _told_ her my river days were over. She _would_ come." "How did the accident happen?" said Val, keeping eyes and ears intent upon the boat just in front. Ethan bent to the oar, looking back now and then to see that Val was close. Julia lay motionless, with Ethan's coat over her.