A quick run, a short swim, and Caius waded up on the island sands.

The colt had a much longer distance to swim, and Caius waited to lay his hand on the bridle.
For a minute or two there was a chase among the shallow, rippling waves, but a horse sinking in heavy sand is not hard to catch.

Josephine sat passive, having enough to do, perhaps, merely to keep her seat.

When at length Caius stood on the island grass with the bridle in his hand, she slipped down without a word and stood beside him.
Caius let the dripping animal go, and he went, plunging with delight among the flowering weeds and bushes.

Caius himself was dripping also, but, then, he could answer for his own movements that he would not come too near the lady.
Josephine no longer wore her loose black working dress; this morning she was clad in an old habit of green cloth.