`` I ai n't fit to think of her , '' he groaned . `` I never did a decent thing in my life , as they say . But how can I give her up -- God , how can I ? '' He lay still a long time after that , until the moonlight crept around the boat and drove away the shadow . Then he got up and went slowly down to the water 's edge with Joan 's rose , all wet with his unaccustomed tears , in his hands . Slowly and reverently he plucked off the petals and scattered them on the ripples , where they drifted lightly off like fairy shallops on moonshine . When the last one had fluttered from his fingers , he went back to the house and hunted up Captain Alec Matheson , who was smoking his pipe in a corner of the verandah and watching the young folks dancing through the open door . The two men talked together for some time . When the dance broke up and the guests straggled homeward , Paul sought Joan . Rob Shelley had his own girl to see home and relinquished the guardianship of his sister with a scowl . Paul strode out of the kitchen and down the steps at the side of Joan , smiling with his usual daredeviltry . He whistled noisily all the way up the lane . `` Great little dance , '' he said . `` My last in Prospect for a spell , I guess . '' `` Why ? '' asked Joan wonderingly . `` Oh , I 'm going to take a run down to South America in Matheson 's schooner . Lord knows when I 'll come back . This old place has got too deadly dull to suit me . I 'm going to look for something livelier . ''
XXXXX 's lips turned ashen under the fringes of her white fascinator .
Joan Matheson Paul Shelley daredeviltry guardianship house moonlight moonshine smoking