outrank the fabled Croesus. We shall yet
be masters of the world. We shall ride upon its neck as if it w-w-were
an ass! How about the old farm life now? Do you want to return to the
p-p-plow-tail? Would you rather milk the b-b-brindle cow than the
b-b-bedeviled people? This has been a g-g-great night, and I must go and
finish it in the c-c-cabin of the Mary Ann with the captain, his mate
and the judge. They will know how to appreciate it! Such a t-t-triumph
must not be allowed to p-p-pass without a celebration."

He bustled about the room a few moments, kissed his wife, shook hands
with David and hastened away.

After he had vanished, David and Pepeeta passed down the long corridor
and out upon the balcony of the old Spencer House, to the place
appointed for the interview of the judge. The night was bright; a
refreshing breeze was blowing up from the river and the frequent
intermissions in the gusts of wind that swept over the sleeping city
gave the impression that Nature was holding her breath to listen to the
tales of love that were being told on city balconies and in country
lanes. Under the mysterious influence of the full moon, and of the
silence, for the noises of the city had died away, their imaginations
were aroused, their emotions quickened, their sensibilities stirred. It
seemed impossible that life could be seriously real. Their conceptions
of duty and responsibility were sublimated into vague and misty dreams,
and the enjoyment of the moment's fleeting pleasures seemed the only
reality and end of life.

The two lovers placed their chairs close to the railing and leaning over
it looked down into the deserted street or off toward the distant hills
swimming like islands on a sea of light, or up to the infinite sky in
the immensity of which their individual being seemed to be swallowed up,
or down into each other's eyes, in the depths of which they discovered
realities which they had never before perceived, and lost sight of those
in which they had always believed. For a long time they sat in silence.
Afterwards, there came a few whispered interchanges of feeling, as the
stillness of a grove is broken by gentle agitations among the leaves,
and finally David said,

"Pepeeta, you have long promised to tell me all you knew of your early
life; will you do it now?"

"Of what possible interest can it be to you?" she asked.

"It seems to me," he replied, "that I could linger forever over the
slightest detail.