ing reefs, the
green, still forests of that unforgotten island. He was a boy once more,
with flowers in his hair, wandering beneath the palms with Tehea. How
often had he thought of her during all these years; the years that had
left him gray and old; the years that had carried him unscathed through
so many dangers in every quarter of the world! For him she was still in
her adorable girlhood, untouched by time, a radiant princess in her
radiant isle, waiting by the shore for his return. It shocked him to
remember she was not far short of sixty--a fat old woman, perhaps,
married to some strapping chief, and, more than likely, with grown
children of her own! How incredible it seemed!

But a word, and he might land and see her. But a word, and the questions
of forty years might yet be answered--answered, yes, to shatter, as like
as not, with pitiless realities the tender figment of a dream. No, he
said, he dared not expose himself to a possible disillusion, to play
into the hands of sardonic nature, ever mocking at man. No; but he would
carry his ship close inshore and watch from the bridge the unfolding
bays and tiny settlements of that lost paradise, and then, dipping his
flag to his vanished youth, he would sink over the horizon, his memory
thrilled and his sentiment unimpaired, to set his face for England.

Dawn was breaking as he slowed down to leeward of the island and watched
the shadows melt away. It was Sunday, a day of heavenly calm, fresh yet
windless, with a sea so smooth that the barrier reefs for once were
silent, and one could hear, far across the hushed and shining water, the
coo of pigeons in the forest. Under bare steerage way, with the leadsman
droning in the fore chains, the ship hugged the shore and steamed at a
snail's pace round the island. On the lofty bridge, high above the
wondering faces of his command, the white-haired captain, impassive,
supreme, and solitary, gave no sign of those inner emotions that were
devouring him. Along the shore the sight of the battleship brought out
here and there a startled figure or a group; a couple of laughing girls,
astride on ponies, raced the _Inflexible_ for a mile, and then, their
road ending in a precipice, threw kisses with their saucy hands; little
children ran out into the lagoon, shouting with joy; old men, in Sunday
_parius_ and with black Bibles under their arms, turned their solemn
eyes to seaward and forgot for a moment the road to church. A white ma