Profanation to the royal arcanum of their hearts! One had marked them descending the hill, one had divined that they would stop by the ship, one had gone down into the grim, black depths of the monster and with his ear pressed against the riven side had heard, and in the hearing had understood what he could not see. So despair, heart-break, envy, jealousy, raged a few feet from love and joy and peace ineffable. So in life it happens. Was there not a serpent in the Garden of Eden? As he heard the sound of lip on lip, the break of kisses, and the murmur of caressing words, the man listening could endure no more. He turned and stumbled blindly away. Had it been mid-day he could not have seen where he went. The sound of his going startled Emily. "What is that?" she cried; "something moving on the ship!" They listened, but Barry had gone far enough away by that time for them not to hear him more. "'Twas nothing, dearest," answered Revere, holding her tenderly to him; "a piece of timber, a loosened plank, a tottering frame. The newest and best of ships are full of strange sounds, much more these old ones." "Bit by bit it wears away," said the girl, sadly. "Ay, sweet, old things go, but new ones come," answered Revere. "Life ends, yes, but new life begins. It begins for us. Come. We have told the ship the story. Let us go back to the hill." "Keep thou the secret, old ship," said Emily, fancifully, yet half in earnest; "tell it not while thou livest, and if thou must fall, let it perish with thee." She bent and kissed the plank. Where she kissed it Barry had listened. The whisper of love and the oath of despair,--a few inches of sheathing alone divided them. CHAPTER XV FORGIVENESS THE FIRST LESSON "That kiss, sweetest," said Revere, gravely, as they walked up the hill, "has made the ship immortal in my heart. It shall stand until it falls away. I was sent here by the government to sell the ship. It was to be destroyed." "Oh, Richard!" she cried in sudden anxiety and alarm at his words. "Nay, love; say nothing of it to any one. It shall not be." "Who will prevent it?" "I." "You! But how?" "I shall buy it myself and let it stand as long as it will." "How good you are!" she exclaimed, greatly relieved. "But, Dick, are you rich enough to buy a whole ship yourself?" "My darling," he answered, "since you kissed me I think I have the mines of Golconda at my command." "Ah, but kisses won't buy ships," returned the wise maiden. "Seriously, Richard?" "Seriously, dearest, I suppose I am rich enough to buy anything I want; that is, anything in reason that is buyable. No fortune could put a price upon you, I am afraid." "Nonsense, Dick!" said the girl. "Are you as rich as that?" "I am of the opinion that I am," he said, somewhat reluctantly; he could not exactly comprehend why. "Does it disappoint you?"