ince the first academy days. That was a time which carried them
both back almost to Conscience's visit in the Valley of Virginia.

A torrent of questions, many of them intrinsically inconsequential yet
important to the exile, had to be put by the officer and answered by the
author. Finally came one which Stuart had apprehended.

"When did you see Conscience Williams last? An unspeakably ancient
letter from home mentioned your spending a summer up there on Cape Cod?
There were even rosy prophecies." Farquaharson winced a little.

"She is married," he said evenly, though with an effort. "She quite
recently married a gentleman by the name of Eben Tollman."

"Oh, then I was misinformed. Give me her address if you know it and I'll
send my overdue congratulations."

Farquaharson complied with that obedience to social necessity which made
him conceal the fact that, for him, this reunion with an old friend had
been robbed of its savor and turned into a series of unhappy memories.

"This evening you are coming aboard to dine with me," announced Hancock
when he had finished his drink and risen, "and after dinner a handful of
people will arrive for an informal dance on deck."

But Farquaharson gave an excuse. He felt weary and shrank from those
inevitable confidences which must ensue. This evening he was leaving for
Tokyo and would reach Yokohama on his return only in time to make his
steamer for Honolulu. Jimmy Hancock was full of regret. His own cruiser,
he said, would sail to-morrow for Nagasaki.

Stuart's return from Tokyo and Nikko put him in Yokohama just before his
steamer's sailing time. So it happened that he went over the gang plank
of the _Nippon Maru_ as the whistle was warning visitors ashore.

Having no acquaintances among the figures that lined the deck rail
behind a flutter of handkerchiefs, he went to the smoking-lounge where
for two hours he busied himself with his author's routine of note books.

It was mid-afternoon when he emerged among those fellow passengers who
had long ago claimed their steamer chairs and dedicated themselves to
the idleness of the voyage.

Stuart began pacing the boat deck with the adequate companionship of his
pipe. He was not lonely for the society of men and women. In his own
mind he put a stress of emphasis on women. Two of them had touched his
life closely enough to alter its currents. One, he had lost through his
own folly and her inability to free herself from the section