was just sure of it.

The dining-room at the Continental held three long tables. That night
our officers sat at one. Mr. Fiske and his party were at the one
farthest away, and a dining-club of consular agents, merchants, and
the Telegraph Company's people occupied the one in between. I could
see her whenever the German consul bent over his food. She was very
pale and tired-looking, but in the white evening frock she wore, all
soft and shining with lace, she was as beautiful as the moonlit night
outside. She never once looked in our direction. But I could not keep
my eyes away from her. The merchants, no doubt, enjoyed their dinner.
They laughed and argued boisterously, but at the two other tables
there was very little said.

The waiters, pattering over the stone floor in their bare feet, made
more noise than our entire mess.

When the brandy came, Russell nodded at the others, and they filled
their glasses and drank to me in silence. At the other table I saw the
same pantomime, only on account of old man Fiske they had to act even
more covertly. It struck me as being vastly absurd and wicked. What
right had young Fiske to put his life in jeopardy to me? It was not in
my keeping. I had no claim upon it. It was not in his own keeping. At
least not to throw away.

When they had gone and our officers had shaken hands with me and
ridden off to their different posts, I went out upon the balcony by
myself and sat down in the shadow of the vines. The stream which cuts
Tegucigalpa in two ran directly below the hotel, splashing against the
rocks and sweeping under the stone bridge with a ceaseless murmur.