The fighting does not go on
constantly."
"I shall see that I am ready," said Elsje. And she was, in good time.
XXVII
We stood upon the deck of the great trans-Atlantic steamer and our
color-thirsty eyes drank in the rich scene of the cliffs and hills of
Ireland, rising above a calm sea under a sky heavy with rain. Dark
grayish-purple, light gray and white rain clouds to one side, above us
a clear limpid blue, a short fragment of a rainbow rising out of the
light emerald-green sea, and stretching straight across the faded brown
and dull green land with the little white houses, on to the
blackish-gray cloud which flowed out into mist and against which the
bright colors shone dazzlingly. Thousands of white gulls round about
the ship, like a whirling, living snow flurry, glittering in the bright
sunlight and contrasting sharply with the dark background of clouds -
screaming and screeching wildly and ceaselessly.
"The sign of the covenant," said I, pointing to the rainbow.
"Do you really believe, Vico, that God gives such signs to men?"
"What do you mean by 'God,' Elsje?"
Elsje looked at me with pensive wonder.
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