One golden autumn day, they motored far into the hills to the west of Washington. They camped upon a mighty cliff towering high above the Potomac. What pleasure they had preparing their simple meal! It was hard for Gloria to realize that this lighthearted boy was the serious statesman and soldier of yesterday. When they had finished they sat in the warm sunshine on the cliff’s edge. The gleaming river followed its devious course far below them, parting the wooded hills in the distance. The evening of the year had come, and forest and field had been touched by the Master’s hand. For a long time they sat silent under the spell that nature had thrown around them.
“I find it essential for the country’s good to leave it for awhile, perhaps forever,” said Philip Dru. “Already a large majority of the newly elected House have asked me to become the Executive. If I accepted, there would be those who would believe that in a little while, I would again assume autocratic control. I would be a constant menace to my country if I remained within it.
“I have given to the people the best service of which I was capable, and they know and appreciate it. Now I can serve them again by freeing them from the shadow of my presence and my name. I shall go to some obscure portion of the world where I cannot be found and importuned to return.
“There is at San Francisco a queenly sailing craft, manned and provisioned for a long voyage. She is waiting to carry me to the world’s end if needs be.”
Then Philip took Gloria’s unresisting hand, and said, “My beloved, will you come with me in my exile? I have loved you since the day that you came into my life, and you can never know how I have longed for the hour to come when I would be able to tell you so. Come with me, dear heart, into this unknown land and make it glad for me. Come because I am drunken with love of you and cannot go alone. Come so that the days may be flooded with joy and at night the stars may sing to me because you are there. Come, sweet Gloria, come with me.”
Happy Gloria! Happy Philip! She did not answer him. What need was there? How long they sat neither knew, but the sun was far in the west and was sending its crimson tide over an enchanted land when the lovers came back to earth.
Far out upon the waters of San Francisco Bay lay the graceful yet sturdy Eaglet. The wind had freshened, the sails were filled, and she was going swift as a gull through the Golden Gate into a shimmering sea.
A multitude of friends, and those that wished them well, had gathered on the water front and upon the surrounding hills to bid farewell to Philip Dru and his bride Gloria.
They watched in silent sadness as long as they could see the ship’s silhouette against the western sky, and until it faded into the splendid waste of the Pacific.