The long rollers boomed a deep note of approval as they surged shorewards in snowy foam, and the gentle breath of the trade wind touched them caressingly with its invisible fingers.
The very sands flashed their delight up at them, and the swaying palm-tops rustled with a drowsy murmur of satisfaction.
Often thus does nature seem to tune herself in accord with the feelings and emotions of mankind.
In that moment the sinister barrier of misunderstanding, which for so long had stood gloomy, forbidding, impassable, had been removed from between their hearts, and the very air, the sea, the earth, the waving foliage, the shining sand rejoiced thereat.
But as the cowboy would say, "You can't buck against destiny."
Destiny had tied a knot—a huge, cruel, untieable knot—which held the lives of these two apart, set though they were in the same web of fate.
Bitterness, doubt, misery had been the direct result; but now, by the aid of that little winged cherub who plays such pranks with most lives, the bitterness, the doubt, the misery, all had been swept aside—only the knot remained.
With a long sigh of thankfulness Loyola murmured gently,
"You do forgive me, Jack?"