"Yes, sir, thank you, sir.I think it's going to rain.Good night, sir."Out of the clear sky, filled only with stars and moonlight, fell a rain so fine and attenuated as to resemble a vapour spray.Nobodyminded it; the children played on, running bare-legged over the grass and leaping into the sand; and in a few minutes it was gone.In the south- east, Diamond Head, a black blot, sharply defined, silhouetted its crater- form against the stars.At sleepy intervals the surf flung its foam across the sands to the grass, and far out could be seen the black specks of swimmers under the moon.The voices of the singers, singing a waltz, died away; and in the silence, from somewhere under the trees, arose the laugh of a woman that was a love-cry.It startled Percival Ford, and it reminded him of Dr.Kennedy's phrase.Down by the outrigger canoes, where they lay hauled out on the sand, he saw men and women, Kanakas, reclining languorously, like lotus-eaters, the women in white holokus; and against one such holoku he saw the dark head of the steersman of the canoe resting upon the woman's shoulder.Farther down, where the strip of sand widened at the entrance to the lagoon, he saw a manandwoman walking side by side.As they drew near the light lanai, he saw the woman's hand go down to her waist and disengage a girdling arm.And as they passed him, Percival Ford nodded to a captain he knew, and to a major's daughter.Smoke of life, that was it, an ample phrase.And again, from under the dark algaroba tree arose the laugh of a woman that was a love-cry; and past his chair, on the way to bed, a bare- legged youngster was led by a chiding Japanese nurse-maid.The voices of the singers broke softly and meltingly into an Hawaiian love- song, and officers and women, with encircling arms, were gliding and whirling on the lanai; and once again the woman laughed under the algaroba trees.
And Percival Ford knew only disapproval of it all.He was irritated by the love-laugh of the woman, by the steersman with pillowed head on the white holoku, by the couples that walked on the beach, by the officers and women that danced, and by the voices of the singers singing of love, and his brother singing there with them under the hau tree.The woman that laughed especially irritated him.A curious train of thought was aroused.He was Isaac Ford's son, and what had happened with Isaac Ford might happen with him.He felt in his cheeks the faint heat of a blush at the thought, and experienced a poignant sense of shame.He was appalled by what was in his blood.It was like learning suddenly that his father had been a leper and that his own blood might bear the taint of that dread disease.Isaac Ford, the austere soldier of the Lord--the old hypocrite! What difference between him and any beach-comber? The house of pride that Percival Ford had builded was tumbling about hisears.
The hours passed, the army people laughed and danced, the native orchestra played on, and Percival Ford wrestled with the abrupt and overwhelming problem that had been thrust upon him.He prayed quietly, his elbow on the table, his head bowed upon his hand, with all the appearance of any tired onlooker.Between the dances the army men and women and the civilians fluttered up to him and buzzed conventionally, and when they went back to the lanai he took up his wrestling where he had left it off.
