"For the first time in my life, Marian," Hamlen said, "I shall regret to see a steamer pass my Point and leave me cut off from the world. As I told you, always before I have gloried in it. To-morrow—"
"We shall be waving to you to-morrow, Philip, and wishing you were with us."
"It won't be long," Huntington added, "before you will be on one of those same steamers on your way to us."
"I hope so," was the non-committal reply.
"We do want you, all of us," Merry smiled persuadingly. "We have come to know each other so well here that we shall miss not being where we can run in to disturb you in your work."
"I shall miss those interruptions too, and the work will be all I shall have to fall back upon. Somehow," he added, turning to Huntington,—"somehow I haven't been able to do the same work since you have been here. I don't understand it. I have been happier during these weeks than in all the years which preceded them, yet my work has not been so good. Why is it?"
"The reason is obvious," Huntington answered quietly, but with a degree of satisfaction in his tone. "In what you say I find a pledge that you will come to us. Our visit, Hamlen, has disturbed the equilibrium of your life; it can never be the same again. Your work now is not so good because your mind has found a new horizon, and refuses to confine itself within the narrow compass which it had before. You can't do as good work again until your life finds new anchorage. Then you will reach heights beyond your dreams; but it will be through your friends that the new anchorage will come. We can afford to be patient, Hamlen, for you must surely turn to us; you cannot avoid it no matter how hard you try."
Huntington's magnetic voice affected Hamlen as deeply as his words. His vision seemed so clear, his domination so complete that it startled the weaker man. Mrs. Thatcher and Merry knew at that moment that, if he chose, Huntington could have compelled Hamlen to follow him to the ends of the earth; and the response their host made showed that he recognized it too.
"You won't force me, Huntington?" he appealed.
"It must come only when you wish it," was the reassuring reply; "but when that moment does arrive, know well, dear friend, how hearty a welcome awaits you."