ring there was nothing dry to
wrap around her, I slipped off my coat and forcibly added its thickness
to her shoulders.

"Do you think I will let you do that, monsieur?"

My teeth chattered and shocked together so it was impossible to keep
from laughing, as I told her I always preferred to be coatless when I
rowed a boat.

We could see each other by the high light that sometimes gilded the
face, and sometimes was tarnished almost to eclipse. Madame de Ferrier
crept forward, and before I knew her intention, cast my garment again
around me. I helped the boat shift its balance so she would have to
grasp at me for support; the chilled round shape of her arm in my hand
sent waves of fire through me. With brazen cunning, moreover, that
surprised myself, instead of pleading, I dictated.

"Sit beside me on the rower's bench, madame, and the coat will stretch
around both of us."

Like a child she obeyed. We were indeed reduced to saving the warmth of
our bodies. I shipped my oars and took one for a paddle, bidding Madame
de Ferrier to hold the covering in place while I felt for the shore. She
did so, her arm crossing my breast, her soft body touching mine. She was
cold and still as the cloud in which we moved; but I was a god, riding
triumphantly high above the world, satisfied to float through celestial
regions forever, bearing in my breast an unquenchable coal of fire.

The moon played tricks, for now she was astern, and now straight ahead,
in that confusing wilderness of vapor.

"Madame," I said to my companion, "why have you been persuaded to go
back to France?"

She drew a deep breath.

"I have not been persuaded. I have been forced by circumstances. Paul's
future is everything."

"You said you would rather make him a woodchopper than a suppliant to
the Bonapartes."

"I would. But his rights are to be considered first. He has some small
chance of regaining his inheritance through the influence of Count de
Chaumont now. Hereafter there may be no chance. You know the fortunes
and lands of all emigres were forfeited to the state. Ours have finally
reached the hands of one of Napoleon's officers. I do not know what will
be done. I only know that Paul must never have cause to reproach me."

I was obliged to do my duty in my place as she was doing her duty in
hers; but I wished the boat would sink, and so end all journeys to
France. It touched shore, on the contrary, and I grasped a rock which
jutted toward us. It