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CHAPTER TV THE THRESHOLD OF A NEW LIFE I STOOD on the deck. I found myself solitary in the opening morning. Bars of crimson and purple were brightening over unseen Palestine ; our white wake was a road reaching straight away towards them, with the black smoke from our funnel travelling back over it ; the waves splashed and tossed in a chorus of fresh whispers. My dress was of the scantiest, a thin overcoat and pygamas; and the air, breathing through all the fluttering folds, seemed to enter the skin as it enters a bird's pinions, and gave me a feel-ing as though I were akin to the wind and foam. And there Cyprus lay, stretching far along the horizon, a bank of hoary blue with curious pallid gleams on it, and dark purple markings that hinted of cliffs and headlands. At this distance, however, it had no definite meaning. I could only wonder what it would mean to me one day, and allow the sensa-tions and fancies of the moment to play with me. D 2

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