"That is why, if I had—a wife, I should dread the sea."
"And that is why a woman—But how long have you been writing poetry?"
"Poetry? Or rhyme? Never before the day I saw you."
[pg 161]
"But when did such ideas before take hold of you?"
"The other night I was lying here looking up, and after a time the moon shone through onto my cot, and you crossed its path—you had given me my night cup and I had pretended to be asleep; and I thought of you looking out on the moonlit sea and I got to wondering what you were thinking of. And I remembered a thousand such moonlit nights when you were not there. And I thought what a difference it would have made had you been there, and so when I say
"'The Western Ocean smiled that night—
Sweetheart, 'twas a dream of thee!'
"you must not smile. I meant it; for if the ocean smiles and whispers and makes men dream of—"