Witnessing her triumphs he would grow young again, he would forget the twenty-five years of heart-breaking struggle on this coast where he felt like a prisoner.

All this was nearly within his reach.

Let only Dain return! And return soon he must--in his own interest, for his own share.

He was now more than a week late! Perhaps he would return to-night.

Such were Almayer's thoughts as, standing on the verandah of his new but already decaying house--that last failure of his life--he looked on the broad river.