John also was impatient to be
gone. If he could have Lilian once more at home, he thought, he would
marry her in spite of her protest, and take her where forgetfulness
must needs soothe her, and strange faces make her cling to him in the
old way. The way in which she clung to him now was too bitter to be
borne. Her mother also began to think of home, and Mr. Sterling had
wearied long ago; and at length, further pretences failing, they had
been freshly provisioned and had started on their homeward way.
Reyburn had, indeed, been loath to make any change in their luxurious
summering, but he was one of those who slide along with the days.
Take the goods the gods provide thee:
The lovely Thais sits beside thee--
was a couplet that he was fond of humming, and he always waited for
some unnatural wrench to make the effort he should have made himself.
But he had consented at last to the return, because while he was still
floating in Southern waters, under Southern skies, with this delicious
voice in his ears, this delicious beauty by his side, he could not
think that a week's sailing must bring him under other conditions.
Perhaps, though, it would be more than a week's sailing, some one
said, for the fair wind that had taken them hither and yon so long,
and had waited on their fancies, was apparently on the point of
deserting them at last, and the yacht was merely drifting before a
fitful breeze that lightly moved a scud of low clouds which the sunset
had kindled into a blaze of glory hanging just above them, and whose
ragged shreds only now and then displayed a star.
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