The extreme cheeriness of his tone grated upon Letty. She tried to withdraw her hand, but Farebrother held on to it stoutly. A change, too, came over him. His bright, strong face grew tender, and he looked at Letty with a glance so piercing that it forced her to meet his gaze and then forced her to drop her eyes.
“We shall meet again, and soon, if I can compass it; and meanwhile, will you promise not to forget me?”
A hubbub of talk had been around them. The tramp of the last belated ones hurrying across the gang-plank, and the screaming of the whistle made a commotion that drowned their voices except for each other.
“I promise,” said Letty, her heart beginning to beat and her cheeks to flush.
She was very emotional and she was conscious that her eyes were filling with tears and her throat was beginning to throb, and she wanted Farebrother to go before she betrayed herself.
“Good-by, and God bless you,” he said, with one last pressure of the hand.
By that time the gang-plank was being hauled in. Farebrother swung himself over the rail to the deck below, ran along the steamer’s gangway, and just as the blue water showed between the great hull and the dock, he cleared it at a bound and stood on the pier waving his hat. The gigantic steamer moved majestically out, while handkerchiefs fluttered from her decks and from the dock. It was now almost dark, but as they steamed quickly out into the moonlit bay, Letty fancied she could still distinguish Farebrother’s athletic figure in the shadowy darkness that quickly descended upon the shore.
V
NEXT morning, after the usual tussle and struggle for their luggage, in which the whole party, including Mr. Romaine’s valet, Sir Archy’s man and Miss Maywood’s and Mrs. Chessingham’s maid took part, they were all driven up to the old-fashioned “before the war” hotel where they had all engaged quarters.