Then he
helped Iris to her feet. She became conscious at once that his
thumb-nail was of extraordinary length, and--so strangely constituted
is human nature--this peculiarity made a lasting impression on her mind.
Hozier, thinking that he ought to remain near the catamaran, stood
upright, but did not offer to follow the others. Iris, filled with a
sudden fear, hung back. The Brazilian, aware of her resistance, sought
its cause. He saw Hozier, grinned, and beckoned to him. So the three
went in company, and at each upward stride the disagreeable stench,
ever afterwards associated with Fernando Noronha in the girl's
memories, became less and less perceptible, until, after a short walk
through a clump of banana trees, it vanished altogether.
At that instant, when Iris was beginning to revel in the sweet incense
of a multitude of unseen flowers, Marcel halted, motioned to Hozier to
stand fast, and indicated that Iris was to come with him. At once she
shrank away in terror. Though in some sense prepared for this parting,
she felt it now as the crudest blow that fortune had dealt her during a
day crowded with misfortunes. In all likelihood, those two would never
meet again. She needed no telling as to the risk he would soon be
called on to face, and her anguish was made the more bitter by the
necessity that they should go from each other's presence without a
spoken word.
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