g, unearthly shapes by the
violence of storms. For here and now the sea had its way; it had
taken on reality; and earth was the phantom, the vanishing, the
vague.

They had been pacing the deck together for some minutes, but at last
they stood still, looking landward.

Durant sighed heavily and then he spoke.

"Frida, you know what I am going to say----"

They turned and faced each other. In the man's eyes there was a
cloud, in the woman's a light, a light of wonder and of terror.

She smiled bravely through her fear. "Yes, I know what you are going
to say. But I don't know----"

"What _don't_ you know?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"You don't know what I mean?"

"I know you are going to say you love me, and you had better not.
For I don't know what that means. The thing you call love was left
out of my composition. Some women are born like that."

"I don't believe it. It's only your way of saying that you don't
care for _me_."

"I like you. I always have liked you. I'll go farther--if I ever
loved any man it would be you."

"The fact remains that it isn't?"

"It isn't, and it never will be. But you may be very certain that it
will never be anyone else."

"Tell me one thing--was there ever a time when it might have been?"

"That isn't fair. I can't answer that question."

"You can. Think--was there ever a time, no matter how short, the
fraction of a minute, when if I'd only had the sense, if I had only
known----"

"Are you sure you didn't know? I was afraid you did."

"Then you really mean it--that if I'd only asked you then----"

"Thank Heaven, you did not!"

"Why are you thanking Heaven?"

"Because--because--I can't be sure, but I might--I might have taken
you at your word."

"And why not?"

"I would have made a great mistake. The same mistake that you are
making now."

"Mistake?"

"You mistook the idea for the reality once, if you remember--and now
aren't you mistaking the reality for the idea?"

"Frida, you are too subtle; you are the most exasperating woman in
the world----"

"There, you see. That's the sort of thing we should always be saying
to each other if I let you have your way. But supposing you did have
it; if we were married we could not understand each other better
than we do; so we should not be one bit better off. By this time we
should have got beyond the phase we started with----"

"But we should have _had_ it----"

"Yes; and found ourselves precisely where