Dick, so that when I hear people speak to her, I am always
startled and surprised.

And now--what are you doing? Are you still planting little gardens,
and talking to your boy--talking to your sad people? Cousin Patty has
told me of your letter to your bishop, who was so kind during
your--trouble--and of his answer--and of your hope that some day you
may have a little church in the sand-hills, and preach instead of teach.

Surely that would make all of your dreams come true, all of _our_
dreams, for I have dreamed too--that this might come.

Sometimes as I lie here, I shut my eyes, and I seem to see you in that
circle of young pines, and I pretend that I am listening; that you are
saying things to me, as you say them to those poor people in the
pines--and now and then I can make myself believe that you have really
spoken, that your voice has reached across the miles. And so I have
your little sermons all to myself--out here at sea, with all the blue
distance between us--but I listen, listen--just the same.

_In the Fog._

Out of the sunshine of yesterday came the heavy mists of to-day. The
sea slips under us in silver swells. Everybody is wrapped to the chin,
and Porter has just stopped to ask me if I want something hot sent up.
I told him "no," and sent him on to Leila. I like this still world,
and the gray ghosts about the deck. Delilah has just sailed by in a
beautiful smoke-colored costume--with her inevitable knot of
heliotrope--a phantom lady, like a lovely dream.

Did I tell you that a very distinguished and much titled gentleman
wants to marry Delilah, and that he is waiting now for her answer?
Porter thinks she will say "yes." But Leila and I don't. We are sure
that she will find her fate in Colin. He dominates her; he dives
beneath the surface and brings up the real Delilah, not the cool,
calculating Delilah that we once knew, but the lovely, gracious lady
that she now is. It is as if he had put a new soul inside of the
worldly shell that was once Delilah. Yet there is never a sign between
them of anything but good comradeship. Grace says that Colin is
following the fashionable policy of watchful waiting--but I'm not sure.
I fancy that they will both wake up suddenly to what they feel, and
then it will be quite wonderful to see them.

Porter doesn't believe in the waking-up process. He says that love is
a growth. That people must know each other for years and years, so
that each can un