She reached the lighthouse without turning her head; she was determined not to look back at him.  At the top, however, she was obliged to pause to get her breath; she surely might look and see how far he got.  Madeleine knew that the other fishermen had had a long start, and expected, therefore, to find Per’s boat far behind, between the others and the shore.  But it was not to be seen, neither there nor in the harbour.  All at once her eye caught the well-known craft, which was not, however, far behind, but almost level with the others.  Per must have rowed like a madman.  She was well able to estimate the distance, and could appreciate such a feat of oarsmanship, and, entirely forgetting her pain and that she was alone, she turned round as if to a crowd of spectators, and pointing at the boats she said, with sparkling eyes, “Look at him! that’s the boy to row!”

Meanwhile Per sat in his boat, tearing at his oars till all cracked again.  It was as though he wished to punish himself by his gigantic efforts.  Her form grew smaller and smaller as he rowed out to sea, till at length she was out of sight; but he had deserved it all.  “Deuce take the women!” and each time he repeated the words he sprang to his oars and rowed as if for bare life.

The next day the same lovely weather continued, and the sea lay as smooth as oil in the bright sunshine.  An English lobster-cutter was in the offing, with sails flapping against the mast, and the slack in the taut rigging could be seen as the craft heaved lazily to and fro on the gentle swell.  Madeleine sat by the window; she did not care to go out.  Her eye followed the lobster-cutter, which she knew well:  it was the Flying Fish, Captain Crab, of Hull.

So Per must have been out with lobsters that morning:  she wondered if he had caught many.  Perhaps he might have done himself harm by his efforts of yesterday.  She went out on to the slope, and looked down into the harbour.  Per’s boat was there; it was quite likely he was not well.

Suddenly Madeleine made up her mind to run down and ask a man whom she saw by the boat-houses, but half-way down the slope she met some one who was coming upwards.  She could not possibly have seen him sooner, because he was below her at the steepest part of the hill, but now she recognized him, and slackened her pace.

Per must also have seen her, although he was looking down, for at a few paces from her he left the main path, and took one that was a little lower.  When therefore they were alongside each other, she was a little above him.  Per had a basket on his back, and Madeleine could see there was seaweed in it.

Neither of them spoke, but both of them felt as if they were half choking.  When he had got a pace beyond her, she turned round and asked, “What have you got in the basket, Per?”

“A lobster,” answered he, as he swung the basket off his back and put it down upon the path.