"Oh, I am so glad to see you again," she said. "It seems almost as if
you had been away a thousand years."

"That," said Dan, "almost pays me for frightening you. Are you ready
for breakfast? I knocked it together a while ago."

"For which you shall be punished--when we get ashore."

CHAPTER XIV

DAN AND VIRGINIA

After breakfast they drew chairs to the wheel and sat out on deck. It
was a wonderful May morning. Thin clouds hung in the blue, like little
yachts; and the cool, balmy air and the sparkling sunlight brought the
clear, steady call of work to be done, of life to be lived beautifully
and nobly, and strong things to overcome, or to accomplish--the call of
youth.

And they heard the call, these two, and responded to it with the
joyousness of youth, wherein a phrase is a lifetime, and a word,
volumes. They talked of themselves, regarding each other wonderingly
as hidden depths of character were revealed, or a word, or a sentence,
or a sympathetic silence threw light upon a new element of personality.

He spoke of the _Fledgling_. He used to see her through a golden haze.
She was his first command. Yet each day came the old question, What
next? And the answer. Why, everything. A future--bigger things and
better, broader work, not on the sea at the last. No; landward,
somewhere, anywhere. But onward, onward!

"Something is linked with every one's destiny, Virginia. Fate fires no
salutes; every shot is solid and aimed at something. And the thing
that is hit you have to step over and go on; if you stop to look at it
and think over it and try to look for something else for Fate to knock
down for you, something easier to step over and get away from, you
find, perhaps, years later, that just there you missed your chance."

She regarded him with kindling eyes.

"And so that has been your philosophy."

"For want of a better, yes."

"I think it is a splendid one, and it has stood its highest test--it
has served you well. Do you know, the first time I had any idea you
were interested in the higher things was that day we were in your cabin
on the _Tampico_. Do you remember my looking at your books and
exclaiming over the selection? I don't know, but somehow the Bible
impressed me most."

"I had a pretty good English foundation at Exeter," replied Dan, "and I
kept it up after I left there. That Bible--I think I did grow and
broaden after leaving school, but I never grew beyond Psalms