And as she jumped off the slippery flank of the _Neptune_, she gave
herself and her crumpled gown a little shake, and made a slight, playful
grimace. The bright young faces round her broke into broad grins--those officers
who volunteer for the submarine services of the world are chosen young,
and they are merry boys. "You may well laugh, messieurs,"--she threw them all a lively
challenging glance--"when I tell you that to-day, for the first time in
my life, I acknowledge masculine supremacy! I think that you will admit
that we women are not afraid of pain, but the discomfort, the--the
stuffiness? Ah, no--I could not have borne much longer the horrible
discomfort and stuffiness of that dreadful little _Neptune_ of yours!" Protesting voices rose on every side. The _Neptune_ was not
uncomfortable! The _Neptune_ was not stuffy! "And I understand"--again she made a little grimace--"that it is quite
an exceptional thing for the crew to be consoled, as I was to-day, by
an ice-pail!" "A most exceptional thing," said the youngest lieutenant, with a sigh. His name was Paritot, and he also had been out with the _Neptune_ that
morning. "In fact, it only happens in that week which sees four
Thursdays--or when we have a lady on board, madame!" "What a pity it is," said another, "that the old woman who left a legacy
to the inventor who devises a submarine life-saving apparatus didn't
leave us instead a cream-ice allowance! It would have been a far more
practical thing to do." Madame Baudoin turned quickly to Commander Dupré, who now stood silent,
smileless, at her sister's side. "Surely you're going to try for this extraordinary prize?" she cried. "I'm sure that you could easily devise something which would gain the
old lady's legacy." "I, madame?" he answered with a start, almost as if he were wrenching
himself free from some deep abstraction. "I should not think of trying
to do such a thing! It would be a mere waste of time. Besides, there is
no real risk--no risk that we are not prepared to run." He looked
proudly round at the eager, laughing faces of the youngsters who were,
till to-morrow night, still under his orders. "The old lady meant very well," he went on, and for the first time since
he had stepped out of the conning tower Commander Dupré smiled. "And I
hope with all my heart that some poor devil will get her money! But I
think I may promise you that it will not be an officer in the submarine
service. We are too busy, we have too many really important things to
do, to worry ourselves about life-saving appliances. Why, the first
thing we should do if pressed for room would be to throw our
life-helmets overboard!" "Has one of the life-helmets ever saved a life?" It was Claire who asked the question in her low, vibrating voice. Commander Dupré turned to her, and he flushed under his sunburn. It was
the first time she had spoken to him that day. "No, never," he answered shortly. And then, after a pause, he added,
"the conditions in which these life-helmets could be utilized only occur
in one accident in a thousand----"

"Still, they would have saved our comrades in the _Lutin_," objected
Lieutenant Paritot. The _Lutin_? There was a moment's silence. The evocation of that
tricksy sprite, the Ariel of French mythology, whose name, by an
ironical chance, had been borne by the most ill-fated of all submarine
craft, seemed to bring the shadow of death athwart them all. Madeleine Baudoin felt a sudden tremor of retrospective fear. She was
glad she had not remembered the _Lutin_ when she was sitting, eating
ices, and exchanging frivolous, chaffing talk with Lieutenant Paritot in
that chamber of little ease, the drum-like interior of the _Neptune_,
where not even she, a small woman, could stand upright. "Well, well! We must not keep you from your _déjeuner_!" she cried,
shaking off the queer, disturbing sensation. "I have to thank you
for--shall I say a very interesting experience? I am too honest to say
an agreeable one!" She shook hands with Commander Dupré and Lieutenant Paritot, the
officers who had accompanied her on what had been, now that she looked
back on it, perhaps a more perilous adventure than she had realized. "You're coming with me, Claire?" She looked at her sister--it was a
tender, anxious, loving look; Madeleine Baudoin had been the eldest, and
Claire de Wissant the youngest, of a Breton admiral's family of three
daughters and four sons; they two were devoted to one another. Claire shook her head. "I came to tell you that I can't lunch with you
to-day," she said slowly. "I promised I would be back by half-past
twelve." "Then we shall not meet till to-morrow?" Claire repeated mechanically, "No, not till to-morrow, dear Madeleine." "May I row you home, madame?" Lieutenant Paritot asked Madeleine
eagerly. "Certainly, _mon ami_." And so, a very few minutes later, Claire de Wissant and Commander Dupré
were left alone together--alone, that is, save for fifty inquisitive, if
kindly, pairs of eyes which saw them from every part of the bay. At last she held out her hand. "Good-bye, then, till to-morrow," she
said, her voice so low as to be almost inaudible. "No, not good-bye yet!" he cried imperiously. "You must let me take you
up the cliff to-day. It may be--I suppose it is--the last time I shall
be able to do so." Hardly waiting for her murmured word of assent, he led the way up the
steep, ladder-like stairway cut in the cliff side; half-way up there
were some very long steps, and it was from above that help could best be
given. He longed with a fierce, aching longing that she would allow him
to take her two hands in his and draw her up those high, precipitous
steps. But of late Claire had avoided accepting from him, her friend,
this simple, trifling act of courtesy. And now twice he turned and held
out a hand, and twice she pretended not to see it. At last, within ten feet of the top of the cliff, they came to the
steepest, rudest step of all--a place some might have thought very
dangerous. Commander Dupré bent down and looked into Claire's uplifted face. "Let
me at least help you up here," he said hoarsely. She shook her head obstinately--but suddenly he felt her tremulous lips
touch his lean, sinewy hand, and her hot tears fall upon his fingers. He gave a strangled cry of pain and of pride, of agony and of rapture,
and for a long moment he battled with an awful temptation. How easy it
would be to gather her into his arms, and, with her face hidden on his
breast, take a great leap backwards into nothingness.... But he conquered the persuasive devil who had been raised--women do not
know how easy it is to rouse this devil--by Claire's moment of piteous
self-revelation. And at last they stood together on the narrow platform where she, less
than an hour ago, had stood alone. Sheltered by the friendly, ugly red walls of the little tower, they were
as remote from their kind as if on a rock in the midst of the sea.