"
Caius thought a good deal about the words that O'Shea's wife had said to
him. He did not know exactly what she meant, nor could he guess at all
from what point of view concerning himself she had spoken; but the
general drift of her meaning appeared to be that he ought not to let
Madame Le Maitre know where and how he had seen her the day before. In
spite of this, he knew that he could neither be true to himself, nor to
the woman he was forced to meet daily, if he made any disguise of the
recognition which had occurred. He was in no hurry to meet her; he hoped
little or nothing from the interview, but dreaded it. Next day he went
without his horse out to where the men were killing the seals upon the
edge of the ice.
The warm March sun, and the March winds that agitated the open sea, were
doing their work. To-day there was water appearing in places upon the
ice where it joined the shore, and when Caius was out with a large band
of men upon the extreme edge of the solid ice, a large fragment broke
loose. There were some hundred seals upon this bit of ice, which were
being butchered one by one in barbarous fashion, and so busy were the
men with their work that they merely looked at the widening passage of
gray water and continued to kill the beasts that they had hedged round
in a murderous ring. It was the duty of those on the shore to bring
boats if they were needed.
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