Page 397 - tender-is-the-night

sion of Tommy Barban on their arrival had first irritated
the Englishwoman.
A moment later she saw Dick standing in the gangway,
apparently in complete control of himself as he talked with
Golding; then for half an hour she did not see him anywhere
about the deck and she broke out of an intricate Malay game,
played with string and coffee beans, and said to Tommy:
‘I’ve got to find Dick.’
Since dinner the yacht had been in motion westward.
The fine night streamed away on either side, the Diesel en-
gines pounded softly, there was a spring wind that blew
Nicole’s hair abruptly when she reached the bow, and she
had a sharp lesion of anxiety at seeing Dick standing in the
angle by the flagstaff. His voice was serene as he recognized
her.
‘It’s a nice night.’
‘I was worried.’
‘Oh, you were worried?’
‘Oh, don’t talk that way. It would give me so much plea-
sure to think of a little something I could do for you, Dick.’
He turned away from her, toward the veil of starlight
over Africa.
‘I believe that’s true, Nicole. And sometimes I believe
that the littler it was, the more pleasure it would give you.’
‘Don’t talk like that—don’t say such things.’
His face, wan in the light that the white spray caught
and tossed back to the brilliant sky had none of the lines
of annoyance she had expected. It was even detached; his
eyes focussed upon her gradually as upon a chessman to be

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