"But he ought to behave himself!"
"Behave himself? It was easy to talk!"
"The girl was coming with the wood!"
When it struck two, and sea and Skerries were flaming in the east,
they were sitting at the open window.
"They were lovers still, weren't they? And now he must go. But he
would be back at ten, for breakfast, and after that they would go for
a sail."
He made some coffee on her spirit lamp, and they drank it while the
sun was rising and the seagulls screamed. The gunboat was lying far
out at sea and every now and then he saw the cutlasses of the watch
glinting in the sunlight. It was hard to part, but the certainty of
meeting again in a few hours' time helped them to bear it. He kissed
her for the last time, buckled on his sword and left her.
When he arrived at the bridge and shouted: "boat ahoy!" she hid
herself behind the window curtains as if she were ashamed to be seen.
He blew kisses to her until the sailors came with the gig. Then a last:
"Sleep well and dream of me" and the gig put off. He watched her
through his glasses, and for a long time he could distinguish a little
figure with black hair. The sunbeams fell on her nightdress and bare
throat and made her look like a mermaid.
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