Towards democracy

458 Towards Democracy

And still she delayed to move, and still the folk, on ship | and shore, with jokes and quips beguiled the hour of parting. «.

Then sudden rang a bugle from the deck. Down came : blue peter; and the foghorn sounded.

The hawsers fell, and she was free. A moment more, , magnificent, she glided down the river.

And instantly from all the decks (from some of the port- holes too) there burst a flutter of waving hands and scarves— a fringe of white, answered by such another fringe on shore 3;

And instantly I saw—what I had missed before—

[Stronger, it seemed, than even cable and hawser, more: numerous and tense than shrouds and stays, finer and subtler 3 than Marconi wires, |

A thousand invisible threads which bound the ship, and! would not be cast off or loosed or snapt,

But tugged and strained at living human hearts—andf strained and tugged and tore—

Till hearts were sore and broken:

Threads of some unseen world—that stretched and stretched, and floated like fair gossamers in the evening light—

So fine and strong, so stronger even than steel ;

And followed lengthening as the great ship faded—lostis in the glory of sunset—

Far out to the Atlantic,