When Lady Tintagel stepped out on to the balcony and took her stand beside the telescope, a deathly sense of faintness almost overcame her. She gripped the balustrade to keep herself from falling. Gradually she revived in the fresh morning air.
Then she adjusted the telescope and focussed it on the dark head in the water.
The powerful lens brought the swimmer so near, that it seemed as if she had but to put out her hand to touch him.
He was swimming in direct line between herself and the rising sun. The water through which he moved, sparkled and glittered. She could see every strand of his 166wet hair, her wedding-ring on his brown finger.
She marked the strong, quick strokes. Rapidly he put distance between himself and the shore. She had to keep adjusting the focus to hold him near.
“Oh God,” she prayed, “do not let him do this thing. Do not let him drown. If a life must be given, my life for his. Oh, by the mercy of Christ, my life for his!”
She saw the wild birds swoop above him.
After a while he began to flag. She watched him fold his arms, turn upon his back, and lie, like a tired child, upon the bosom of the sparkling ocean.
Then she could see his face, ghastly in the sunlight. There was madness in it—madness.
“O God of infinite mercy! My punishment is greater than I can bear. I bow to Thy Divine Will. I give up my belovèd; I give him up, if need be, for all eternity; but save him from the doom of the suicide. My life for his, O Lord, my life for his!”
167He had turned, and was swimming on; but his movements were vague and uncertain. He clove the water feebly, pausing between each stroke and raising his head.
Suddenly he disappeared. The sparkling highway held no sign of him.
“Nigel!” she shrieked, “Nigel!”
The brown hands reappeared; the dark head rose out of the sea. But making no attempt to swim, he lifted his face to the sun, then raised his arms and went down again.
“O God, have mercy!”
Oh, mocking, vast expanse of gaily sparkling sea!
She held her breath and watched.
Ah! His hands again! His face—the eyes now wide and staring. He gasped; his chest heaved. He raised his head and shoulders out of the water; then slowly clasped his hands, lifted them above his head, and sank instantly.
She was silent in her agony; yet, speechless, her heart still cried to God.
168“Save him! Save him! My soul for his! O God, my soul for his!”
O empty, sunlit sea!
The floor rocked and swayed beneath her feet. She clung to the telescope, striving to keep in view the rippling surface where last she had seen him.
No sign, no hope. This w............