“Ah,” replied Fanny, pettishly, “you only say that because you know she is as absurdly quixotic as yourself. It may be a very fine thing to be able to throw fortunes away,” the speaker pursued, “but I am glad Tom has no temptations of the kind.—Come,” she said, taking that gentleman’s arm, “I begin to feel the swell a little. Let us walk.”

They passed down the deck, and the two left alone together stood silent for a moment, still watching the lessening lights of the fairy-like city. Then Kyrle turned his face seaward, to meet the fresh breeze that came from the wide sweep of the Adriatic, and his heart leaped within him, as if in answer to that boundless freedom of the sea.

“This is not exactly the sea-gull yacht in which I longed to carry you away,” he said to his companion, “but, although less poetical, it is still bearing us toward the region of our dreams—that mysterious distance out of which it seemed possible that all things might come.”

“You came out of it,” said Aimée, with a sound as of a smile in her voice. “How well I remember the night on the sea wall of St. Augustine, when I waited for the sound of your oars, and presently you came from the sea, as now—”

“Now I am going back to it—with you,” he said, as she paused. “There has been a long interval between the beginning and the end of the romance; but it is fitting that the sea, which had a part in its beginning, should also have a part in the end. And I may be presumptuous,” he added after a moment, “but I have no fear that we shall not find all our dreams awaiting us beyond that dim horizon of the future at which we gazed the other day.”

THE END.

Transcriber’s Notes:

  1. The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
  2. Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been maintained, i.e.: lover-like/loverlike, downstairs/down-stairs, etc.
  3. [Page 40] “I dont want any wine,” changed to “I don’t want any wine,”.
  4. [Page 141] “The Jocelyns” changed to “The Joscelyns”.
  5. [Page 159] Removed extra double quote.
  6. [Page 200] “lovelness of the most poetical” changed to “loveliness of the most poetical”.
  7. [Page 202] Added single quote after “Kyrle to send him away”.
  8. [Page 227] Period added after “children”.
  9. [Page 250] Double quote added after “And what a pleasant thing it is,”.