till it too was no more identity but only sea, receiving the sun, without
thought, without limbs, without pain. He sprinted with the last breath
he had in him to annihilation in that light lustrous firmament. Then his
flung-out hand struck something firm and smooth. With the momentary twinge
of a jarred toe, he stopped in the middle of a stroke, grabbed at the firm
thing unthinkingly, felt it slip away from him, trod water and came up
gasping.

"Oh, I'm _horribly_ sorry!" Gurgle and choke at water gone the wrong way.
"Honestly--what a dumb-bell trick! but I didn't see you at _all_ and with
the whole Sound to swim in I thought I was safe--"

He rubbed the water out of his eyes. A woman in a blue cap. Pretty,
too--not one of the pretty kind that look like drenched paper-dolls in
swimming.

"Don't apologize--it's all my fault, really. I should have heard you
coming, I suppose, but I was floating and my ears were under water--and
this cap! You did scare me a little, though; I didn't know there was anyone
else in miles--"

She smiled frankly. Ted got another look at her and decided that pretty was
hardly right. Beautiful, perhaps, but you couldn't tell with her hair that
way under her cap.

"You're Mr. Billett, aren't you? Louise said last night that her brother
was bringing a friend over Sunday. She also said that she'd introduce
us--but we seem to have done that."

"Rather. Introduction by drowning. The latest cleverness in Newport