And they heard the call, these two, and responded to it with the joyousness of youth, wherein a phrase is a lifetime, and a word, volumes. They talked of themselves, regarding each other wonderingly as hidden depths of character were revealed, or a word, or a sentence, or a sympathetic silence threw light upon a new element of personality.
He spoke of the _Fledgling_. He used to see her through a golden haze. She was his first command. Yet each day came the old question, What next? And the answer. Why, everything. A future--bigger things and better, broader work, not on the sea at the last. No; landward, somewhere, anywhere. But onward, onward!
"Something is linked with every one's destiny, Virginia. Fate fires no salutes; every shot is solid and aimed at something. And the thing that is hit you have to step over and go on; if you stop to look at it and think over it and try to look for something else for Fate to knock down for you, something easier to step over and get away from, you find, perhaps, years later, that just there you missed your chance."
"I think it is a splendid one, and it has stood its highest test--it has served you well. Do you know, the first time I had any idea you were interested in the higher things was that day we were in your cabin on the _Tampico_. Do you remember my looking at your books and exclaiming over the selection? I don't know, but somehow the Bible impressed me most."
"I had a pretty good English foundation at Exeter," replied Dan, "and I kept it up after I left there. That Bible--I think I did grow and broaden after leaving school, but I never grew beyond Psalms and St. Paul; which proves that a little knowledge is not dangerous."
"Most men would be ashamed to say that," she said. "Most of the men I have known," she added.
"I never would have said it to any one but you." He said this with quiet conviction, and the girl inclined her head slightly.
"I thank you. . . . Do you remember that night at the dinner when I told you that if our friendship was to continue it was to be one of limitations? How long ago that seems now--and how absurd!"
"Doesn't it?" She laughed. "It seems to me you were inclined to regard it so that night."
"Is it so? If you had asked me, I might have admitted that the fact I ever could be indignant with you was the principal reason why that night of the dinner seemed so long ago." She hastened to qualify. "For, you see, I count you now among my very closest friends."