The night was still and warm, and while the men lingered below at the table, the two women mounted to the deck and watched the lights of the town as they vanished one by one and left the moon in unchallenged possession of the harbor. For a long time Miss Cameron stood silent, looking out across the bay at the shore and the hills beyond. A fish splashed near them, and the sound of oars rose from the mist that floated above the water, until they were muffled in the distance. The palms along the shore glistened like silver, and overhead the Southern Cross shone white against a sky of purple. The silence deepened and continued for so long a time that Mrs. Collier felt its significance, and waited for the girl to end it. Miss Cameron raised her eyes to the stars and frowned. “I am not surprised that he is content to stay here,” she said. “Are you? It is so beautiful, so wonderfully beautiful.” For a moment Mrs. Collier made no answer. “Two years is a long time, Florence,” she said; “and he is all I have; he is not only my only brother, he is the only living soul who is related to me. That makes it harder.” The girl seemed to find some implied reproach in the speech, for she turned and looked at her friend closely. “Do you feel it is my fault, Alice?” she asked. The older woman shook her head. “How could it be your fault?” she answered. “If you couldn’t love him enough to marry him, you couldn’t, that’s all. But that is no reason why he should have hidden himself from all of us. Even if he could not stand being near you, caring as he did, he need not have treated me so. We have done all we can do, and Robert has been more than fine about it. He and his agents have written to every consul and business house in Central America, and I don’t believe there is a city that he hasn’t visited. He has sent him money and letters to every bank and to every post-office--” The girl raised her head quickly. “--but he never calls for either,” Mrs. Collier continued, “for I know that if he had read my letters he would have come home.” The girl lifted her head as though she were about to speak, and then turned and walked slowly away. After a few moments she returned, and stood, with her hands resting on the rail, looking down into the water. “I wrote him two letters,” she said. In the silence of the night her voice was unusually clear and distinct. “I--you make me wonder--if they ever reached him.” Mrs. Collier, with her eyes fixed upon the girl, rose slowly from her chair and came towards her. She reached out her hand and touched Miss Cameron on the arm. “Florence,” she said, in a whisper, “have you--” The girl raised her head slowly, and lowered it again. “Yes,” she answered; “I told him to come back--to come back to me. Alice,” she cried, “I--I begged him to come back!” She tossed her hands apart and again walked rapidly away, leaving the older woman standing motionless.