Dimmer and dimmer grew the vision of the distant sailor face, clearer and clearer the image of the vast palace, of the queenly power, of the diamonds, the gold, the ambitious future.

It all lay at her feet, waiting to be picked up.

How could she have hesitated, even for a moment?
She rose, and, walking over to her desk, she took out a sheet of paper and an envelope.
The latter she addressed to Lieutenant Spurling, H.M.S.

_Active_, Gibraltar.

The note cost some little trouble, but at last she got it worded to her mind.
"Dear Hector," she said--"I am convinced that your father has never entirely approved of our engagement, otherwise he would not have thrown obstacles in the way of our marriage.
I am sure, too, that since my poor father's misfortune it is only your own sense of honour and feeling of duty which have kept you true to me, and that you would have done infinitely better had you never seen me.