Mrs. Hermann did not know whether a man of that sort could make a girl
happy--she had been greatly deceived in Captain Falk. She had been very
upset last night.

Those good people did not seem to be able to retain an impression for a
whole twelve hours. I assured him on my own personal knowledge that
Falk possessed in himself all the qualities to make his niece's future
prosperous. He said he was glad to hear this, and that he would tell his
wife. Then the object of the visit came out. He wished me to help him to
resume relations with Falk. His niece, he said, had expressed the hope I
would do so in my kindness. He was evidently anxious that I should,
for though he seemed to have forgotten nine-tenths of his last night's
opinions and the whole of his indignation, yet he evidently feared to
be sent to the right-about. "You told me he was very much in love," he
concluded slyly, and leered in a sort of bucolic way.

As soon as he had left my ship I called Falk on board by signal--the
tug still lying at the anchorage. He took the news with calm gravity,
as though he had all along expected the stars to fight for him in their
courses.

I saw them once more together, and only once--on the quarter-deck of the
Diana. Hermann sat smoking with a shirt-sleeved elbow hooked over the
back of his chair. Mrs. Hermann was sewing alone. As Falk stepped over
the gangway, Hermann's niece, with a slight swish of the skirt and a
swift friendly nod to me, glided past my chair.

They met in sunshine abreast of the mainmast. He held her hands and
looked down at them, and she looked up at him with her candid and
unseeing glance. It seemed to me they had come together as if attracted,