e Bay and the Heads.

Ferry-boats were crossing the harbour, jewelled and glittering with
electric bulbs, moving in the distance without visible effort with the
motion of swans, the throb of engines and the swirl of water lost in
the distance. It was a symphony in light, each detached gleam on the
sombre shore hanging

Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear.

Between the moon and the eye the water lay like a sheet of frosted
glass; elsewhere the water rippled without life or colour, treacherous
and menacing in the night.

Jonah turned and looked at the woman beside him. They were alone on
the rocky headland, the city and the world of men seemed remote and
unreal, cut off by the silvery light and the brooding shadows. It
dawned slowly on him that his relations with this woman were
independent of time and space. Of all things visible, it was she alone
that mattered. Often enough he had missed his cue, but now, as if
answering a question, he began speaking softly, as if he were talking
to himself:

"Clara!--Clara Grimes!--Clara! I've wanted ter say that out aloud fer
months, but I've never found the place ter say it in. It sounds quite
natural 'ere. Yer know that I love yer--I've seen it in yer face, but
yer don't know that you're the first woman I ever wanted. No, yer
needn't run away. I'm afraid ter touch yer, an' yer know it. Yer
thought because I was married that I knew all about women. Why, I
didn't know what women were made for till I met you. I thought w'en I
'ad the shop an' my boy that I had everythin' I wanted, but the old
woman was right. There's a lot more in this world than I ever dreamt
of. Seein' you opened my eyes. An' now I want yer altogether. I want
ter see yer face every 'our of the day, an' tell yer whatever comes
into my mind. I spend 'ours talkin' to yer w'en I'm by myself."

"It's only my right," he went on, with increased energy. "I'm a man in
spite of my shape, an' I only ask fer what I'm entitled to. I can see
that other men 'ave been gittin' these things without me knowin' it. I
used ter grin at Chook, but I was the fool. I had everythin' that I
could see that was worth 'avin', an' somehow I wasn't satisfied. I
never could see much in this life. I often wondered what it was all
about. But now I understand. What's this for," and he indicated the
dreamy peaceful scene with a sweep of his hand, "if it only leaves yer
starin' and wonderin'? I know now. It's ter make