“Why not?” Stella thought. She didn’t know what they were talking about, but was merely carrying on the thread of her own speculations. “It would have to turn out some such way as this—to be quite perfect and complete. Yes, it would have to.” And in a moment she thought, with a little more agitation: “How familiar they are—like old, old friends. He finds in her all he’s missed in me. How complete! How perfect—that I should come out of it with nothing but a moral....”
Her heart was flooded with a rush of passionate regret.
They were taking turns peering through Elsa’s binoculars.
“Looks peaceful, doesn’t it, with all the palms and the sunset?”
“Yes—may I have a look?”
“Your Japanese seems rather dejected. I’m afraid you were a bit rough.”
“What would you have done under the circumstances?”
“Just what you did, I’m sure. Let’s have another peep before we are out of range.”
Slowly the Star of Troy picked her path among the reefs and wore to sea. But for a long time the figure of Tsuda, huddled on the ruined dock in the sunset, was still visible.