ked,
"when I joined you here to-night?"

"When you--? Oh, nothing we're thinking of now."

"At the same time, what was it?"

"Why--something rather too fanciful to put into words."

"All the same, let's have it."

"Well, for one thing, seeing and feeling this boat, with all its light
and life, speeding, twinkling on and on through the night like a swarm
of stars, the thought came--and I was wishing I could share it with
you----"

The elder hand pressed the younger.

"The thought that since infinite space--" The thought seemed to stall,
take breath, and start again--"since infinite space is lighted only by
the stars, the rush and roll of this universe through space is forever
and ever--in the large--a night scene--an eternal starlight. Is that
absurd--to you?"

The father smiled: "Why, no. I merely--doubt it. All starlight is
sunlight--near enough by."

"Yes. But between stars there is no near-by, is there?"

"That depends on who's looking, I think. We mustn't impute human eyes to
God--or angels--or saints. You remember the word: 'Darkness and light
are both alike to thee'?"

"Yes," pensively said Hugh, rejoicing in this converse yet wondering why
it made him feel so childish to speak his best while Hayle's twins
showed up in so manly a fashion when they spoke their worst. "Yes, I
thought of that, too. Yet I was glad to believe there will always be
plenty of starlight for those who love it----"

"Wow!" yelled Ramsey in his ear.

With a gulp he whirled and faced her where, limp with laughter, she hung
and swung on the captain's chair. Its occupant quietly rose. The old
nurse wrung her hands, and Ramsey, in an agony of mirth and dismay,
cringed back on her. Suddenly the maiden stood at her best height and
with elaborate graciousness said:

"I _hope_ I haven't interrupted!"

The father's hand appeasingly touched the son's while playfully he said:
"You have a hopeful nature, Miss Ramsey." And then, as her disconcerted
eyes widened, he asked: "Where did you come from just now?"

He saw that if she spoke she must weep. Instead she jauntily waved a
whole arm backward and upward to the pilot-house. Then, her self-command
returning, she remarked, for Hugh in particular: "It's nice up there.
They don't snub you." She twitched a shoulder at him, made eyes to his
father, and once more tinkled her laugh, interiorly, as though it were a
door-bell.

The captain was amused, yet he gravely began to ask: "Does your