He laughed uneasily and got up, saying that he was going to see about the trouble on the boat.  He saw that he must have a cleared mind and steadied nerves with time to think.  And he could not think in her presence, he could only feel her blue eyes on his face and her little hands clasped around his knee or about his arm.  He tried not to look at her, and hurriedly began buttoning his coat before starting on his cold way home.  In drawing his coat closer, his hand came in contact with the pearls which he had forgotten.  He drew them out and hung them again around her neck.  She thanked him with a smile, but he saw that she scarcely looked at them, that she was thinking only of her love and her lover, though she held his hand and walked beside him to the front door.

From it they could see dimly and were able to make out the black bulk of the boat lying far out in the river beside the island.  As he looked at it a feeling of the worthlessness of all that he owned swept over him, overwhelming him with despair.  All the gold that he had gathered, or ever could gather, would be worthless yellow dust if he might not use it to give her comfort or pleasure or happiness.  He realized suddenly that this was everything that his riches had meant to him ever since she had wound herself around his heart.  Money could do little for him; he was weary and old and sad and had come to feel—­as every rich man must come to feel sooner or later—­that for himself his riches meant, after all, only food and clothes.  And now he found himself facing the end of the sole interest and happiness that he could ever hope to find in life.  Henceforth it would be with the utmost that he could do, as it had been just now with these pearls.  He fully recognized the hopelessness of trying to win her away from her lover.  That had grown plainer with every gentle word that she had said while they had sat before the fire.  And he knew that this proud young fellow, whose glance had met his like the crossing of swords, would never allow her to touch a penny of his money, or anything that it could buy, if he could help it.  The thought was like tearing the heart out of his breast, and another thought sprang up again in defence of all that he held dear.  He began to breathe quickly and heavily, like a man who has been running.  He feared that she must feel the plunging of his heart, for she was leaning against him, looking out at the wild, windy night.  But she heard only the mournful wail of the wind through the great trees, and the roar of the river rushing under the misty darkness.  There was no moon, but the stars were shining in the dark dome of the universe.

“I wonder why the stars look so old, while the world looks so new,” she murmured, with her head on his shoulder and her face upturned.  “I wonder why there is such a look of changelessness about the heavens, while the earth seems changing so fast!”

Her eyes were wandering over the infinite starry spaces with wondering awe, but he was looking down at her and he started when she cried out in amazement, touched with alarm.  She lifted her hand and pointed, and following its direction, he saw that the comet had disappeared.