And he was happy.
He gave Victoria good advice, and promised help from Nevill Caird. "He's
sure to meet me at the ship," he said, "and if you'll let me, I'll
introduce him to you. He may be able to find out everything you want to
know."
Stephen would have liked to go on talking after dinner, but the girl,
ashamed of having taken up so much of his time, would not be tempted.
She went to her cabin, and thought of him, as well as of her sister; and
he thought of her while he walked on deck, under the stars.
"For a moment white, then gone forever."
Again the words came singing into his head. She was white--white as this
lacelike foam that silvered the Mediterranean blue; but she had not gone
forever, as he had thought when he likened her whiteness to the
spindrift on the dark Channel waves. She had come into his life once
more, unexpectedly; and she might brighten it again for a short time on
land, in that unknown garden his thoughts pictured, behind the gate of
the East. Yet she would not be of his life. There was no place in it for
a girl. Still, he thought of her, and went on thinking, involuntarily
planning things which he and Nevill Caird would do to help the child, in
her romantic errand. Of course she must not be allowed to travel about
Algeria alone. Once settled in Algiers she must stay there quietly till
the authorities found her sister.
He used that powerful-sounding word "authorities" vaguely in his mind,
but he was sure that the thing would be simple enough.
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