“It is too fine a night to go below,” he said.  “What do you say, Brand—­shall we wait up for the daylight and the first glimpse of America?”

“If you like,” said Brand, taking out his cigar-case, and hauling along the chair in which Natalie had been sitting.

They had the whole of this upper deck to themselves, except when one or other of the officers passed on his rounds.  They could talk without risk of being overheard:  and they had plenty to talk about—­of all that had happened of late, of all that might happen to them in this new country they were nearing.

“Well,” he said, “Evelyn, that settlement in Genoa clinched everything, as far as I am concerned.  I have no longer any doubt, any hesitation:  there is nothing to be concealed now—­nothing to be withheld, even from those who are content to remain merely as our friends.  One might have gone on as before; for, after all, these death-penalties only attached to the officers; and the great mass of the members, not being touched by them, need have known nothing about them.  But it is better now.”

“It was Natalie’s appeal that settled that,” Lord Evelyn said, as he still watched the shining waves.

“The influence of that girl is extraordinary.  One could imagine that some magnetism radiated from her; or perhaps it is her voice, and her clear faith, and her enthusiasm.  When she said something to old Anton Pepczinski, on bidding him good-bye—­not about herself, or about him, but about what some of us were hoping for—­he was crying like a child!  In other times she might have done great things:  she might have led armies.”

By-and-by he said,

“As for those decrees, what use were they?  From all I could learn, only ten have been issued since the Society was in existence; and eight of those were for the punishment of officers, who ought merely to have been expelled.  Of course you will get people like Calabressa, with a touch of theatrical-mindedness, who have a love for the terrorism such a thing can produce.  But what use is it?  It is not by striking down an individual here or there that you can help on any wide movement; and this great organization, that I can see in the future will have other things to do than take heed of personal delinquencies—­except in so far as to purge out from itself unworthy members—­its action will affect continents, not persons.”

“You can see that—­you believe that, Brand?” Lord Evelyn, said, turning and regarding him.

“Yes, I think so,” he answered, without enthusiasm, but with simple sincerity.  Presently he said, “You remember, Evelyn, the morning we turned out of the little inn on the top of the Niessen, to see the sun rise over the Bernese Alps?”

“I remember it was precious cold,” said Lord Evelyn, almost with a shiver.