"I think it the most wonderful thing in the world!" she said. "I can't understand it—I can't believe it—and yet, there it is!"
"Yes—and I suppose it has become an every-day affair to the operator in there; it isn't wonderful to him any more. We forget how wonderful a lot of things are, when we get used to them."
"How wonderful everything is," she corrected; "the sunrise, the ocean...."
They sat for some time in silence, gazing out across the dark and restless water, touched here and there with white, as a wave combed and broke. Then Dan's gaze wandered to her face. Seen thus, in the dim light, framed by her dark hair, it, too, seemed wonderful to him; there was about it a mystic allusiveness, a subtle charm, far more compelling than mere beauty ever is; her eyes had depths to them....
She felt his gaze upon her and turned her face to him and smiled.
"You may smoke, if you wish," she said. "I can feel that at the back of your mind."
"I believe I was thinking about it," Dan admitted, and got out his pipe; but he had himself been scarcely conscious of the thought, and it amazed him that she should have detected it. There was the flare of a match, and he sat back again, exhaling a long puff. "Now," he said, "you are going to begin my education. I am ready for the first lesson."
"How shall I begin?"
"I think an excellent way would be to tell me something about yourself," he suggested.
She considered him gravely.