mself slipping into the manner
which seemed more natural, and then he wondered if his policy of
aloofness might not savor of the priggish.

Not until they were nearing Honolulu did they refer to the past and then
it was Marian and not Stuart who broached the subject.

"We were fortunate in being in Japan in cherry-blossom time," suggested
Stuart in a matter of fact fashion, as they strolled on deck at sunset.
"We saw it all at its best."

"Cherry-blossom time in Japan--" she echoed musingly. Then suddenly she
broke out with an almost impassioned bitterness, "Yes, I suppose we
were--fortunate! We are both still in our twenties. I am rich and you
are better than that--you are along the way of being famous. And yet it
occurs to me that neither of us is precisely happy. We are both outcasts
from contentment--just Bedouins in the world's desert, after all."

His question came vaguely and uncomfortably, "What do you mean, Marian?"

She laughed, banishing the gravity from her face.

"Nothing--nothing at all, Stuart," she assured him. "It was just a
woman's mood." But after a moment she went on in a voice of greater
seriousness: "It seems as good a time as any to tell you that I've come
to realize with a wretched guiltiness--how I pulled you into the mess I
made of my own affairs. If there were any way of undoing it--"

He interrupted her quickly, "Please don't brood over that, Marian. It's
all ended now. You were too confused just then by your own foreground
wretchedness to be able to gauge the perspectives."

"One has a right," she declared with self-scorn, "to expect from an
adult human being, a reasonable degree of intelligence. I didn't display
it to any conspicuous extent."

"You gave way to a moment of panic."

"Yes--and you suffered for it. I didn't quite understand then that
sealing the evidence in the divorce, while it was supposed to protect
me, really left you no chance to clear yourself."

"Naturally not," he smilingly rejoined. "You weren't a lawyer, you know.
But it must pain you to discuss these things and I'm not asking any
explanation. Why shouldn't we let them rest in peace?"

Her face flushed a little and she seemed on the point of argument, but
she only said: "Yes, I suppose that is better."

The evening before the _Nippon Maru_ was due in the Hawaiian port there
was no moon, but all the softly blazing stars of the tropics were
kindled in the sky and the phosphor waters of the Pacific played i