n this hour of saying good-bye. She had looked upon him as her
playfellow, and for the month he had been her playfellow; but now he was
not parting like a playfellow. He talked excitedly and disconnectedly,
or was silent, by fits and starts. Sometimes he did not hear what she
was saying, or if he did, failed to respond in his wonted manner. She
was perturbed by the way he looked at her. She had not known before that
he had such blazing eyes. There was something in his eyes that was
terrifying. She could not face it, and her own eyes continually drooped
before it. Yet there was something alluring about it, as well, and she
continually returned to catch a glimpse of that blazing, imperious,
yearning something that she had never seen in human eyes before. And she
was herself strangely bewildered and excited.

The transport's huge whistle blew a deafening blast, and the
flower-crowned multitude surged closer to the side of the dock. Dorothy
Sambrooke's fingers were pressed to her ears; and as she made a _moue_ of
distaste at the outrage of sound, she noticed again the imperious,
yearning blaze in Steve's eyes. He was not looking at her, but at her
ears, delicately pink and transparent in the slanting rays of the
afternoon sun. Curious and fascinated, she gazed at that strange
something in his eyes until he saw that he had been caught. She saw his
cheeks flush darkly and heard him utter inarticulately. He was
embarrassed, and she was aware of embarrassment herself. Stewards were
going about nervously begging shore-going persons to be gone. Steve put
out his hand. When she felt the grip of the fingers that had gripped
hers a thousand times on surf-boards and lava slopes, she heard the words
of the song with a new understanding as they sobbed in the Hawaiian
woman's silver throat:

"Ka halia ko aloha kai hiki mai,
Ke hone ae nei i ku'u manawa,
O oe no kan aloha
A loko e hana nei."

Steve had taught her air and words and meaning--so she had thought, till
this instant; and in this instant of the last finger clasp and warm
contact of palms she divined for the first time the real meaning of the
song. She scarcely saw him go, nor could she note him on the crowded
gangway, for she was deep in a memory maze, living over the four weeks
just past, rereading events in the light of revelation.

When the Senatorial party had landed, Steve had been one of the committee
of entertainment. It was he who had