noon
Under the after awning she would sit at ease in the low wicker chair , by turns reading , watching the ceaseless traffic of the river , musing on love and happiness -- which meant , always , Roy . Came a day when Roy was summoned home by the illness of his mother . Ethel went with him to the station and saw him off . It was long after noon when she had given the last word of farewell and the last kiss of tenderness to her lover . Ethel thought that she would like to seek the repose of the yacht for a period of tranquil meditation in the luxurious depths of her favorite chair under the after awning . She rode to the dock in a taxicab , and the yacht 's tender took her to the vessel . It was just then that a great steamer passed , and as she would have mounted the stairs to the yacht 's deck an unexpected swell from the passing steamer smote the stairs so violently that Ethel was thrown back into the boat she had just left , with an ankle crushed under her own weight .