"I heard the final chapter of their romance while we were going up the China Sea; I’d waited for him, after all, and had taken them both north with me. After Bert had left Melbourne, she had missed him, and had awakened to the realization that she’d driven him out of her life. So she discovered what it meant to her, what she’d been doing, and bowed before the law that through any wrong keeps the heart pure and the spirit ready to fulfil itself. She had determined to follow, but couldn’t locate him. Some said he was in Singapore, some in Hong Kong; the consensus of many vague rumours, however, agreed that he had gone north into the China Sea region. It was familiar ground to her; she had friends there, and sources of information. She’s always known of Halsted’s packet service; the next time he came around, she had taken passage in the _Senegal_ for an indeterminate trip up the coast. "Unfortunately, Halsted also knew of her. He was a beastly sort of character. The moment they got outside he grew familiar, and soon was making forthright approaches. She was the only woman on the vessel; the other passenger was an elderly man, to whom she couldn’t hope to look for protection. She, of course, was a woman of experience, as capable of protecting herself as is humanly possible; but there are limits to the power of the mind over brute force, when passion is engaged. Make no mistake—her aversion from him was virginal, and nothing could have induced her submission. "’I took my revolver on deck one morning, to show him my marksmanship’ said she ’I shot a bird on the end of the spanker gaff. Then I got him on one side, and told him what I would do. I told him that I should be constantly on the watch, and that I would shoot him dead if he came near me. It was the only way—but I knew he was a coward’ "So this was the situation on board the _Senegal_—on the one hand defiance, on the other baulked and fermenting desire. Halsted watched her as a cat watches a mouse, trying to catch her off guard. Throughout the afternoon while they had been coming up the straits, even while my glass had been looking them over, the silent battle had been going on. The presence of the land had filled her with nameless apprehension. Then they had run into the calm; in this condition, the supper hour had arrived. She had waited on deck until she thought the others would be nearly finished; when she entered the forward cabin, she saw that she had waited too long. The mate and the old gentleman had gone on deck forward; Halsted sat there alone. She had to pass him to reach her seat. As she attempted to slip by, he rose suddenly and crushed her in his arms. The Chinese steward in the pantry turned his back on the scene.