“Two or three millions!” said John.
“Ah!” replied the poet.
On the red bridge Sara paused a moment and stood gazing down the river. “What a misty look there is away down there over the salt marshes!” she said, “the boats tipped up on shore, with their slender masts against the sky. The river is certainly going down to the sea, and yet the sea-breeze comes from behind me.”
“The Sebastian is nearer the ocean up here than it is down at its mouth,” said John. “Look across: there is only the North Beach between us here and the ocean.”
“Between us and Africa, you mean.”
“What is it that attracts you toward Africa, Miss St. John?” asked Eugenio.
“Antony,” replied Sara, promptly. “Don’t you remember those wonderful lines written by an Ohio soldier,
“ ‘I am dying, Egypt, dying;
Ebbs the crimson life-tide fast?’ ”
“Dear me, Miss St. John, I hope you are not taking up Antony and Cleopatra to the detriment of the time-honored Romeo and Juliet! Romeo is the orthodox lover, pray remember.”
“But I am heterodox,” replied Sara, smiling.