cocoanut palms. Here, on the outer reef, I wrecked an excellent
steamship. Over the rail sprang a stalwart lad, not out of his teens,
with a lovely golden-haired girl in his arms. With strong, swift
strokes, he struck out for the beach, notwithstanding his burden. The
other passengers, a hazy and quite uninteresting lot, quickly went down;
all save one, a coarse, swaggering youth with too much self-possession
whom I need not name. He, too, sprang over the rail, but, nearing the
beach, a justly enraged providence intervened and he was bitten neatly
in two by a famished and adroit shark.

With some interest I watched his blood stain the lucid green waters, but
it was soon over. Then I bore my fainting burden to the dry sands and
revived her with cocoanut milk and breadfruit, while the natives crowded
respectfully about and made us their king and queen on the spot. We
lived there forever. How flat of sound were it to say that we lived
happily!

And yet I doubt if Solon Denney ever suspected me of aspiring to be his
rival. She, I think, knew it full well, in the way her sex knows matters
not communicated by act or word of mouth. And once, on the afternoon of
that day, a Friday, when we spoke pieces, I feared that Solon had found
me out. He was a fiery orator, and I felt on this occasion that he
delivered himself straight at me, with a very poorly veiled malignance.
Surely, it must be I that he meant, literally, when he thundered out,
"Sir, you are much mistaken if you think your talents have been as great
as your life has been reprehensible!" Fall upon me and upon me alone
seemed to flash his gaze.

"After a rank and clamorous opposition you became--all of a
sudden--silent; you were silent for seven years; you were silent on the